A young mother yesterday told of how she spent seven hours in labour in the admissions room at the new €75 million Cork University Maternity Hospital after she was told that there were not any beds available in the hospital's labour ward.
Mother of three, Sarah Long (27) said that she was examined by a doctor and told to go home because they did not have a bed in the labour ward when she went to the hospital at 3am last Friday after going into labour at home at about 6pm on Thursday.
Ms Long went home, but because the labour pains were so intense, she returned again to the hospital at 5am on Friday where she was again examined and told go home again. She and her husband David refused and she was told she could wait in the admissions area.
"It was very embarrassing because my waters weren't fully gone and I was in this waiting room with all these people. I was leaning on the window sill when I was getting contractions and everyone was looking at me - they couldn't believe that I wasn't up in the labour ward."
A public patient, Ms Long said that she ended up spending almost seven hours in labour in the admissions room before a bed became available in the labour ward. During that time, two other women in labour also came in to the waiting room where they had to wait for a bed.
"We just couldn't believe it - we have a €75 million new maternity hospital and we ended up in labour in the waiting room because they don't have enough beds, and yet when I was admitted, we discovered that two wards were closed."
The Health Service Executive opened 128 of the 144 beds at the new hospital on March 31st following a dispute with midwives and nurses over staffing levels, with the Irish Nurses' Organisation claiming that the 315 midwives and nurses available were not sufficient to open all 144 beds.
Ms Long gave birth to baby Leah at 9pm on Friday and she praised midwifery and nursing staff in the labour ward. The HSE said it could not comment on individual cases.
