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Maternity staff face extreme burnout during the pandemic as staff shortages and longer, busier working hours lead the workforce to become increasingly overwhelmed, officials have warned. health.
Personalities working in pregnancy services told The independent Healthcare professionals are working longer hours, covering extra shifts around the clock and spending more time on call to compensate for the growing number of employees who are absent from work after contracting coronavirus.
Staff say stress-related absences have reached “worrying” high levels, with young doctors and midwives being “thrown into the deep” due to the need to replace colleagues.
Professionals have argued that the coronavirus crisis will lead to an increase in the number of doctors, nurses and midwives suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues – raising concerns concerns that staff exhaustion could hamper patient safety and standards of care.
The warnings come from a report by Make Birth Better, which was shared exclusively with The independent, found that 31% of healthcare workers said they had not received any emotional support.
Michael Magro, consultant obstetrician at Barking, Havering and Redbridge, said services were already “in high demand” – with only the minimum number of staff needed to work – due to the labor shortage before the crisis. Covid never hits.
Mr Magro, who is also vice chair of a multi-professional advisory board for the national charity Baby Lifeline, explained that doctors he trusted had been urged to take annual leave before December to avoid burnout professional, but all of their vacation days in January have now been canceled. to help cope with staff shortages.
He said he had never seen this before as he warned the staff are “demoralized and exhausted” and it will have long-term repercussions on their mental and physical health.
Mr. Magro added: “Midwives and junior doctors have said, ‘I’m going to have to call in sick because of exhaustion.’ Young doctors are working in fields in which they never thought they would work. They are now working in Covid services.
“It’s even more difficult for staff living alone. They really suffer from anxiety, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, and anxiety about coming to work, due to the fear of getting sick themselves. “
Recent research by the Royal College of Midwives argued that the safety of maternity wards is ‘seriously threatened’ – with eight in 10 midwives saying their trust in the NHS or their board does not have enough of staff to ensure security. Four in ten say that half of the shifts are understaffed and seven in ten have considered leaving the profession.
Suzanne Tyler, executive director of college member services, said The independent: “Sickness absences due to stress and burnout have reached worrying levels in the profession and this has been made even worse by absences due to Covid-19 and for those left behind with services already in operation. understaffed, the pressure is immense.
“A survey by the Royal College of Midwives has shown that midwives are often unable to find time even to go to the bathroom during long, demanding work shifts, by working unpaid overtime, and it does. day after day. It is simply unacceptable. “
A Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists study, carried out before the coronavirus emergency last year, found that two-thirds of a sample of its members and trainees reported being exposed to work-related traumatic events. Of these, nearly a fifth of the consultants and trainees reported suffering from clinically significant symptoms of PTSD.
Dr Pat O’Brien, consultant obstetrician and vice president of the professional association, noted that a high proportion of maternity ward staff had been deployed to other areas of the hospital to fight on the front lines of the Covid crisis during the first wave.
“It is likely that it would have been extremely stressful for many of them who would not be used to treating critically ill patients on a daily basis,” he added. “Ultimately, a stressed workforce can have serious implications for patients, as we know that burnout reduces patient satisfaction, safety and standards of care.”
The Covid upheaval has led women to attend scans on their own, deliver alone without a partner, change their birth plans and have less access to pain relief.
While new guidelines sent to trusts in England in December stipulated that pregnant women should be allowed to be accompanied by someone during exams, appointments, labor and delivery, the growing severity of the pandemic means that many trusts do not follow the recommendations.
Leah Deutsch, a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynecology at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, said The independent the coronavirus crisis will trigger an increase in PTSD among maternity ward staff.
She added: “Before Covid, we joked that maternity wards were a war zone. I don’t think there is any preparation for the impact of highly charged traumatic situations. We step in when things go wrong and we are faced with potentially fatal bleeding and need to get babies out within minutes.
Dr Deutsch noted that obstetrics has the highest dropout rate of any specialty within the medical profession – indicating that 30 percent quit within the seven years of training.
She added, “It’s so intense. It’s a high-risk specialty where people take legal action against hospitals when adverse events occur – it leads to background anxiety.
“When you’ve dealt with horrible cases where moms and babies have died, you think I can’t do that. Some will have seen several cases during their career. People suffer from burnout. I certainly did. After several consecutive events, I had a one-year career break.
Dr Emma Evans, Honorary Elect Secretary of the Association of Obstetric Anesthesiologists, said The independent: “Unlike surgical specialties, there are no women who cancel childbirth and many mothers are more complex and vulnerable than ever at this time.”
Emily Pullan, a midwife who works for the South London NHS Trust, said she had worked long shifts where there was no time to eat or drink – adding that she was struggling to “switch off” in the evening when the day’s work remained in his mind.
She said, “When your sleep is interrupted it adds anxiety because you know you have to go do another 13 hour shift so you need sleep. Part of you really doesn’t want to come in, but you have to get up and start over.
Ms Pullan noted that many of her colleagues are afraid to go to hospital because they are at risk of serious complications from Covid-19 or fear endangering vulnerable family members. She said neither she nor many of her colleagues watch the news because it exacerbates their anxiety.
“The two or two times I looked at the news, I felt very anxious to go to work – you think I’m going to this sprout factory tomorrow,” Ms. Pullan added.
Georgie Haseldine, a newly graduated midwife who works at Rotherham Hospital, said she had been ‘thrown into the deep end’ and had to watch out for cross infections while caring for HIV positive women at Covid.
A spokesperson for NHS England has been contacted for comment.
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