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Luxembourg's Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Security have approved a so-called neonatal care concept that will allow the reopening of the maternity unit at the Centre Hospitalier du Nord (CHDN) in Ettelbruck.
Last week, the CHDN announced that it was temporarily closing its maternity ward in Ettelbruck, as of Monday 4 April 2022, owing to staff shortages.
Two days later, on Wednesday 6 April 2022, Luxembourg's Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Minister of Social Security, Claude Haagen, approved the neonatal care concept developed by the CHDN in partnership with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) allowing the reopening of the CHDN maternity unit in the near future.
Together with the CHL's management and its neonatology department, the CHDN was able to define a set of measures that will ensure neonatal care for the Ettelbruck hospital and ensure compliance with the law of 8 March 2018 on hospitals and hospital planning.
"We have developed a good concept to allow a reopening of the maternity of the Centre Hospitalier du Nord. For me, it is a priority to guarantee the best support for pregnant women and to leave no patients behind", said Health Minister Paulette Lenert, thanking the hospitals concerned of their flexibility and cooperation.
An agreement was found with the association of anesthetists and reanimators, the gynecologists-obstetricians group and authorised paediatricians of the CHDN.
The date of the reopening of the maternity unit will be communicated "as soon as possible", according to the Ministries of Health and Social Security. During this temporary closure, women in the first stages of labour can use the emergency telephone number 112 and benefit from ambulance transport. The CHDN also undertakes to accompany each intervention of the SAMU emergency medical service with a midwife from its maternity team.
