Partner access restored at University Maternity Hospital Limerick
NOMINATED support partners of inpatients at University Maternity Hospital Limerick will be allowed increased access from next week, it has been announced.
The new measures, being enacted at UMHL with effect from next Tuesday morning, October 26, are in line with the guidance of the Health Protection Surveillance Committee which was updated earlier this week.
"With effect from Tuesday morning, nominated support partners will be able to access all three inpatient wards at the hospital, from 8am to 9pm daily," said a spokesperson for the UL Hospitals Group.
This is the latest, and most significant, of a series of measures that have been taken since April of this year, to gradually ease the pandemic restrictions on access to nominated support partners of women in UMHL.
Eileen Ronan, Director of Midwifery for UL Hospitals Group, has welcomed the change following such a protracted period of anxiety and inconvenience for service-users, inpatients and their loved ones.
“Primarily due to the physical infrastructure of University Maternity Hospital Limerick, and the high transmission of Covid-19 in the local community, it has been necessary to take a very gradual approach to facilitating access for nominated support partners of our inpatients and service users. We have always sought to achieve a balance between the need for support partners to be present and support pregnant women, while also prioritising the safety, welfare and privacy of all women and infants in our care, and our staff,” Ms Ronan said.
“This has been a very difficult time, and I’m very pleased that we are now in a position to provide 8am-9pm access for nominated support partners. We will have to continue with temperature monitoring and Covid-19 questionnaires at the entrance to the hospital, and we hope that people will continue to cooperate with these steps which remain in place to keep the hospital a safe space for all patients, service users and their loved ones,” she continued.
These new access measures means that from next Tuesday UMHL will be permitting nominated support partners to access the following areas, regardless of vaccination status, once the Cocid-19 questionnaire and temperature screening has been completed at the hospital reception.
Inpatients and pregnant women attending UMHL for antenatal appointments and who are not yet fully vaccinated against Covid-19, are being urged to enquire about how to get a vaccine at the Satellite Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic in the hospital’s antenatal department.