The Ettelbruck maternity ward at short notice because of a lack of neo-natal specialists, specialising in care for ill or prematurely born babies as well as providing emergency resuscitation for infants.

Under an agreement with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), the ward but will be admitting low-risk pregnancies only. In case of emergency, a neonatal emergency medical service will transfer mother and child to the CHL in Luxembourg City.

But petitioners fear that the lack of emergency medical care in the country’s north will be detrimental to mothers and children.

A demanding an emergency maternity and children’s ward that is open 24/7 reached more than 2,200 signature in the first few days of going online. Petitions must gather 4,500 signatures to be debated with lawmakers and government representatives in parliament. There is more than a month left to sign the petition.

“A 24-hour maternity and paediatric emergency room would be a common good and essential for the north of the country, knowing that the journey to the Luxembourg City centre could be too long in extreme cases,” the petition authors say.

“We ask ourselves what would happen in the event of a vital emergency or a pregnant mother or a baby,” they say, adding that this is a “troubling question”.

In 2020, eight pregnant women and four premature newborns had to transferred outside the country for emergency medical care as Luxembourg’s wards were at capacity, the .

The debate around medical care in rural areas of the country also extends to the east of Luxembourg. Grevenmacher in April opened a with a computer tomography (CT) scanner and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine in addition to conventional X-ray technology in a bid to offer these services closer to patients living in the east of the country and alleviate patient load at hospitals.

But national health insurer CNS currently only reimburses the costs of a scan when this is done at a Luxembourg hospital. Patients receive €150 for a scan carried out abroad, with some patients choosing destinations in the greater region because of long wait times in Luxembourg.

The health ministry had wanted to prevent the opening of the clinic, saying that a coordinated approach to offering ambulatory care across the country should be developed. Reviewing ambulatory care services forms part of the 2018 to 2023 coalition agreement.