Rotunda only hospital with rising birth rate – master

The Rotunda is the only hospital in Ireland where the birth rate is increasing, according to Master of the Rotunda Hospital Seán Daly.

Some 8,500 babies were born there last year and Mr Daly said registrations show this figure will increase by a further 4% in 2024.

He attributes the figures to the growth in population across north Dublin, where he said many young families are living.

Mr Daly said the Rotunda is experiencing more gynaecology referrals than obstetric referrals for the first time, which he described as a “new departure” for the 279-year-old hospital.

The HSE has acquired two new buildings for the Rotunda – the Earl Building to the rear of the Clery’s redevelopment and another on Dominic Street, close to the Rotunda itself.

Mr Daly said the hospital has renamed the Earl Building, Hampson House after Sara E. Hampson, who was the first matron of the Rotunda.

All paediatric, obstetric or pregnancy-related outpatient services will happen there, he said, and is expected to begin operating by the end of this year.

The Rotunda’s old outpatient department will be demolished and a critical care wing will be built in its place, giving “21st century neo-natal and special baby care,” Mr Daly said.

As part of this reconfiguration, a new theatre will be opened and an old one closed, which will result in all theatres being on the same floor, alleviating some of the pressure.

The new 24,500 sq ft premises on Dominic Street is where gynaecology outpatients and physiotherapy department will be relocated, and this will also have an early pregnancy assessment unit.

Mr Daly said the number of gynaecology referrals has risen from 400 a month four years ago to almost 1,000 now, as a result of the population getting older and there is a “real focus on menopause and management of menopause, and a lot more women seeking care for that”.

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He said the Rotunda is “managing this quite well” – nobody is waiting more than one year and no-one for general gynaecology is waiting more than six months.

However four groups of patients are waiting more than nine months – complex menopause, infertility, urogynaecology and outpatient hysteroscopy – extra clinics are being put on to respond this and are “coping well.”

Mr Daly said the hospital wants to “aim at the Sláintecare target which is 10 weeks.”

He said the Rotunda is currently delivering more than one baby per hour, or 168 per week, and that “really does put pressure on beds – if there are no beds this affects service across the whole hospital”.

He added that the Board of the Rotunda has also purchased numbers one, two and five Cavendish Row, to relocate non-patient-facing services to free up space within the hospital.

Mr Daly said the Rotunda faces staffing challenges as well, in nursing and midwifery, some of which relates to the ability to live in Dublin, and the hospital is going to upgrade a 1930s nurses home it has to help alleviate this.

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