Nurses in a Riverside County hospital say they’re worried about their pregnant patients, many of whom are from underserved communities, after learning that the facility’s labor and delivery department will be shuttered in the coming months.
Officials at Hemet Global Medical Center delivered the news that the obstetrics department would be suspended for at least a year in a Friday meeting last week, telling the nurses assigned to the unit that women who need to deliver will be referred to the hospital’s emergency department.
As for staff that work in the labor and delivery facility, including some who have been there for decades, they say they’re basically left unemployed.
“They said they were letting us all go,” Andrea Lunetta, a registered nurse in the facility, told KTLA’s Shelby Nelson. “However, if there were any positions in the hospital in other departments that were open, we could take those.”
Lunetta has been a postpartum nurse at Hemet Global Medical Center for years and says there is a lot more than just delivering the baby that is involved in the work. For example, giving birth can come with complications during delivery, hemorrhaging can be an issue or premature births.
There is also the treatment care of the child and mother after delivery.
Another issue, according to Lunetta who said the closure is set for Oct. 31, is that their jobs in labor and delivery are highly specialized. So, for many of the nurses, it doesn’t make sense to move to a cardiac or surgical department where they have never worked before.
Officials at the hospital explained the decision was due to low volume and a shortage of physician coverage.
While many of the nurses are concerned about their jobs, they’re also worried about the impact the decision will have on the surrounding community, much of which is underserved in relation to healthcare.
The hospital frequently cares for high-risk pregnancies and many of the patients are low-income, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to travel to other hospitals that are miles away and hard to access.
Nurses say some of their patients never receive prenatal care and come to the hospital ready to deliver their baby.
“I think, too, that the closure was announced without a comprehensive plan,” Lunetta explained. “What happens when a mother has an emergency cesarean section immediately to save her life or the life of the baby? There are a lot of moving parts. There will not be an OB doctor. So, who’s going to do those surgeries? Who’s going to take the role of caring for the newborn?”
In a statement from National Nurses United, the organization says in part that, “The RN’s demand that the obstetrics department remain open. The department is a critical and irreplaceable resource for Hemet residents.”
The hospital says its emergency department will remain available to women who need to give birth, but the nurses’ concerns are related to needed specialized care or, in this case, the potential lack of it.