The CHdN group in the north of the country is meant to take on low-risk pregnancies. It oversees between 60 and 70 births a month. Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

The CHdN group in the north of the country is meant to take on low-risk pregnancies. It oversees between 60 and 70 births a month. Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

A few days after the temporary closure of the Ettelbruck maternity ward was announced, the health and social security ministries approved a package to allow its reopening.

The association of anaesthetists, the group of gynaecologists and obstetricians and the paediatricians accredited by the CHdN came together to adopt a concept to allow Ettelbruck’s maternity ward to operate. Health minister Paulette Lenert (LSAP) in a press release thanked the actors involved in the agreement for their cooperation, also stating that: “For me, it is a priority to guarantee the best care for pregnant women and to leave no patient behind.”

The so-called neonatal care concept, developed by the CHdN and the CHL, combines several measures to counter the hospital’s staff shortage. For example, the Ettelbruck ward will have a trained reanimation team present on site. Experts from the CHL’s neonatology department will also offer their assistance remotely, while newborns will be transferred to intensive neonatology services in the Luxembourg City hospital if needed.

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The maternity ward in the north of the country is tasked with taking on low-risk pregnancies, but should there be any issues, the neonatal emergency medical service (Samu)--whose capacity will be increased--will transfer them to the CHL.

is the result of a shortage of specialist neonatologist doctors. Current legislation stipulates that a maternity hospital with fewer than 1,500 births per year must have an obstetrician-gynaecologist, an anaesthetist and a paediatrician available on short call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

But neonatologists, who specialise in care for ill or prematurely born babies and could also provide emergency resuscitation if necessary are rare, and the CHDN is in short supply. Anaesthetists regularly intervene to resuscitate newborns. Twice a month on average Ettelbruck has to call in the CHL's neonatal emergency service.

Although the ministries state that the reopening will take place soon, the exact date isn’t known yet. In the meantime, women who have begun going into labour will be taken in charge by the Samu if they contact the emergency number 112. Each soon-to-be mother will be accompanied during the trip to the hospital by one of the CHdN’s midwives.