Thank you for your ongoing support to reopen Lumsden! At last tally there have been Four emergency births in 31 days near the Former Lumsden Primary Maternity Centre.
What a shambles and an absolute disgrace. Please continue to share and sign!
Below is an overview of recent quotes in news articles.
SDHB Refusal to meet with Practitioner's who are expected to deliver the service (otherwise it’s a DIY space-right?). This meeting was to be held with concerned medical practitioners who have literally been left "holding the baby" by the decision to close Lumsden.
This non-attendance by the decision makers leaves (in my opinion) rural medical practitioners in an increasingly hostile Health and Safety situation as they do not have the back up of a second midwife, which is legally required (as one example).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/391694/decision-to-not-front-lumsden-meeting-embarrassing-mp-sa
Southland District mayor Gary Tong says "The people involved with this need to get their heads around the fact that it is not working. For the money that they think they have saved, about $300,000 a year, they have put lives at risk and caused a huge amount of stress for mothers, babies, midwives, doctors, and emergency services volunteers. It has to stop before the percentages cross over - they have been lucky so far but that might run out."https://i.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/southland-top-stories/113866022/southland-mayor-urges-sdhb-to-reinstate-maternity-services-at-lumsden
[SDHB] "have failed to deliver on their promise to develop a stronger system of care for primary maternity services across the Southland district, and [mayor Gary Tong] calls for the facilities "that have worked so incredibly well for the past 50 years or more" to be instated"
https://southland.app.link/MEjTGsVWSX
Pauline Dawson, a teacher and doctorate candidate based at the Dunedin School of Medicine, researched travel patterns of women giving birth in the SDHB region for her masters thesis. "The primary plan has been based - in my academic opinion - on incorrect catchment data and the extremely broad interpretation of the service coverage schedule," she said.
"I believe Lumsden to be a geographically strategic centre that provided back up and support for isolated lead maternity carers and equitable care for rural women in a remote area.
"Its closure is dangerous, leaving the remaining workforce isolated.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=12244762
No oxygen AGAIN
The centre was run by the Northern Southland Health Company before being downgraded, and trustee Carrie Adams said the two midwives, who delivered the baby in emergency circumstances on Wednesday morning, said the oxygen tank which was used with the neopuff machine, was empty."
It would have been used at the last emergency birth there but you would have to question the Southern District Health Board as to why it was empty," Adams said.
No Oxygen, dirty, unclean and a dead mouse!
"...The tank was empty and the centre's linen was dirty. Midwife Nicky Pealing said it's upsetting to work under such circumstances.
"It's just not a good feeling when it's not clean properly, it just makes me cry really."
Northern Southland Medical Trust who now lease the Lumsden Hub to SDHB had to write a letter demanding that the facility is cleaned and biohazards such as soiled linen is taken away in a timely manner.
https://southland.app.link/hN6Ere6WSX
Babies born around dead mice and droppings in Lumsden hub
Nothing expresses abandonment like a dead mouse squashed in a doorway of a closed-down birthing unit.
https://trib.al/YIBloV4
As a follow up, I am advised that PROFESSIONAL cleaners have finally been seen at the Lumsden Hub on 27 June. Two months after it “opened”!
Is this good enough? Are you angry yet???
****
I suggest putting any thoughts into an email and sending to:
Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern: Jacinda.Ardern@parliament.govt.nz
AND
Dr. David Clark. Minister of Health. david.clark@parliament.govt.nz
#rurallivesmatter #SaveLumsden #RussianRoulette