Selwyn Times: March 03, 2021

Wednesday March 3 2021 Selwyn Times
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 13
Premature births tax hospital resources
Neonatal
intensive care
unit running
over capacity
• By Bea Gooding
SHOCK: July and Dave McQueen with their son who was
born eight weeks early, weighing just under 2kg.
WHEN JULY McQueen was
rushed to Christchurch Women’s
Hospital to give birth eight
weeks early, there wasn’t much
time to react to news that she
had to do so in another city.
Midwives advised her and
husband, Dave, that the neonatal
intensive care unit was well over
capacity at the time and could
not accommodate any more
babies.
But as they prepared to transfer
to a hospital in Dunedin
things took a turn at the last
minute and it was deemed no
longer safe for McQueen to
travel.
“We didn’t have time to react.
As if having to deliver our child
eight weeks too early isn’t shocking
enough, we really just dealt
with the news as they gave it to
us,” McQueen said.
“I knew that they had mine
and my baby’s best interests in
mind when they suggested to
move us to another hospital with
a well-equipped neonatal intensive
care unit.”
McQueen was 31 weeks pregnant
when her son decided to
make his entrance into the world
this month, weighing more than
expected for his age at just 4.2
pounds.
She said nothing sudden or
obvious happened that triggered
her water to break. At first, she
thought her bladder was leaking
– until it kept going.
Said McQueen: “I rang my
midwife immediately who instructed
me to go straight to hospital.
It was only when the results
came back from a test after I gave
birth revealing that I developed
an infection in my placenta that
will eventually affect the baby.
“At that point, the baby’s
natural defence mechanism
took its course.”
Midwives tried their best to
Inpatient deliveries at
Christchurch Women’s
Hospital during December
2015 – 420
2016 – 415
2017 – 422
2018 – 409
2019 – 412
2020 – 426
Total: 2932
Inpatient deliveries at
Christchurch Women’s
Hospital during January
2015 – 476
2016 – 395
2017 – 451
2018 – 461
2019 – 451
2020 – 451
2021 – 449
Total: 3134
delay birth and stop labour with
medication.
She was told that due to
NICU’s over-capacity, it would
be ideal if she did not go into
labour, “but my baby had other
plans.”
After about eight hours, he was
born.
Canterbury District Health
Board clinical director Dr Nicola
Austin confirmed that NICU
was currently operating over
capacity. However, the hospital
did not characterise this as
“overcrowding.”
Women have not been sent
to different hospitals due to
capacity in the maternity wards,
she said, but it differed if they
were at risk.
“When required, for capacityrelated
reasons, we do need to
transfer mothers with high-risk
pregnancies to other regions with
available NICU beds before they
deliver their baby,” Austin said.
CDHB director of midwifery
Norma Campbell said one moment
of time did not represent
whether the birthing suite was
over capacity.
“Just like ED, it can move very
rapidly, from being manageable
to operating at full capacity, and
vice versa, within the course of a
day,” Campbell said.
Data supplied by CDHB
revealed an average of 418 inpatient
deliveries during the month
of December at Christchurch
Women’s in the past seven years
– excluding home births, and
births at St George’s Hospital.
But last December and January,
the numbers were 426 and
449 respectively.
Maximum resourced capacity
at the Christchurch NICU has
increased from 41 to 44 babies.
Austin said additional nurses
are put on shifts to cover higher
occupancy rates.
McQueen said she received
adequate care in spite of limited
resources.
“Even with limited resources,
I’ve never been made to feel like I
was a nuisance to them,” she said.
Annual water
use charges
If you’ve got a water use consent to take more than five
litres per second, you’ll be receiving an invoice over the
next few months.
Each consent to take water will be charged an annual
fixed fee for data processing. This fee will help to ensure
we use Canterbury’s water resources more sustainably.
Find out more at ecan.govt.nz/water-use-charges
E21/8360
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resilient Canterbury, now and for future generations.
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