midwife's muse

Beyond belief

At a local maternity unit there are two lifts which are needed to transport women from the delivery suite and theatres to the wards, they are the only two lifts. For a while now there has been a sign stuck under the call buttons advising users that 'These lifts are faulty, please keep finger on button', this alone would be enough to stop me from using them, I have no desire to be stuck in a lift. A couple of weeks ago, when there was a torrential downpour, the basement flooded, which stopped the lifts completely, luckily this was fixed within a few hours. Today it happened again, but this time they have not been, and will not be, repaired until sometime tomorrow.

Picture the scene, today was Elective Caesarian day, all the women were marooned downstairs on the labour ward, filling it up. This was the situation until 4.30pm when the Ambulance Team were asked to come and assist, which they did, carrying all the women upstairs on chairs. Good solution but.........supposing someone requires emergency surgery, bleeding heavily, baby in distress, what will happen then, how will they get them down to theatre, dial 999? The mind boggles. If nothing catastrophic happens overnight this is one hospital who should really give thanks to some higher being for saving their arses. They have had weeks to sort out this problem, but as usual nothing has happened, they must have had more important things to concern themselves with like what should they order for the buffet at the Managerial Meeting.

10.10.06 21:33