"We are also in a precarious situation. For the moment, we manage to get by, but in the next five years, almost half of our doctors will retire," warns Romain Schockmel, medical director of the Chem (Centre hospitalier Emile Mayrisch) in the south of the country in reaction to the announcement by the "It was a subject we had been discussing for several weeks, but the decision came quickly. We were contacted to receive the pregnant women being monitored there and we are able to ensure their follow-up. Our infrastructure allows us to manage 1,000 births per year, and we are currently at around 950."

Asked by Delano’s sister publication Paperjam, the director of the CHDN Paul Wirtgen explained on 4 April that the Ettelbruck hospital was "no longer able to comply with the law” which states that a maternity hospital with fewer than 1,500 births per year must have a gynaecologist-obstetrician, an anaesthetist and a paediatrician available on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Finding a national solution”

"Today we are in compliance at the Chem maternity unit, we have a team of gynaecologists and paediatricians who, if they are not present on site, can be reached and can come quickly, but we are not immune to illnesses, departures, etc. At present, if a baby needs to be resuscitated after delivery, first aid is provided by the anaesthetist who is assisted by the paediatrician. And as soon as the newborn needs intensive care, the CHL's neonatology unit intervenes. But I would like to remind you that most of the time, everything goes well, and the midwives are also trained and authorised to carry out deliveries on their own, without the presence of a gynaecologist,” adds Schockmel.

Schockmel says there is also "the problem of remuneration for these doctors' on-call duty". The hospital plan makes no provision for compensation for doctors who are on call, which makes it difficult to recruit these specialists. "This is why we need to find a global and national solution, we need a national convention, particularly in the maternity sector, to structure the whole thing, to say who takes care of what. In this case, at the moment, high-risk pregnancies are followed up at the Grand Duchess Charlotte maternity hospital of the CHL, because that has the neonatology service at the Kannerklinik."

The Ministry of Health is working on this

Wirtgen also confirmed on Monday that "the solution we have been working on for weeks, with the ministry, is [...] to increase the budget of this neonatology Samu to have two doctors on call, by hiring. This is easier in Luxembourg than in Ettelbruck, for reasons already mentioned such as the number of deliveries. So, yes, the solution will probably be to strengthen the neonatology department of the CHL and to redefine a collaboration agreement with it.”

Health Minister (LSAP) said on Monday morning on RTL that "these are problems that cannot be resolved overnight. This is about the problem of childcare services in general."

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.