What's New @ AGH
- Proposed Atikokan General Hospital Redevelopment
- AGH suspends routine labour and delivery services
- Four births here in '08, just one in '09
- Atikokan Progress - Monday, January 18, 2010
- The Atikokan Geneal Hospital will suspend routine labour and delivery services as of February 1, 2010. The board made the decision earlier this month.
- The hospital will continue to support expectant families by facilitating transfers by Emergency Medical Services when necessary and providing care during labour and delivery when unplanned or unexpected deliveries occur.
- The decision to suspend routine labour and delivery services has been made in the interest of patient safety and quality of care. In making this decision the board of directors has given consideration to advice from the hospital senior management team and recommendations from the hospital Medical Advisory Committee.
- This decision has been largely driven by the decreasing number of deliveries that have been performed within the hospital over recent years. There has been a significant decrease in the number of deliveries performed at the Atikokan General Hospital over the past ten years. In 2001, there were 18 deliveries in our hospital; there were only four births in 2008, and the last delivery performed at the AGH occurred in February 2009.
- These numbers are lower than any other hospital in the region that continues to offer routine labour and delivery care.
- The steady decline in the numbers of births that take place in our hospital has created a situation in which hospital staff have increasing difficulty maintaining the level of skill and experience that an expectant family would expect from the obstetrical program.
- The physicians and nursing staff of the Atikokan Family Team will continue to provide prenatal care to newborns and mothers as they have in the past and will work cooperatively with the regional obstetricians to ensure all patients receive the highest quality and safest care possible.
- Dr. Sara Van Der Loo on behalf of the AFHT medical staff, said the physicians and staff of the Atikokan Family Health Team wish to assure the community "the physicians and hospital are prepared to deal with any unexpected deliveries that occur in our community and that patients need not fear they will have to travel out of town for all appointments related to their pregnancy. While it is true that they will need to see an alternate health care provider for delivery, the physicians of the Family Health Team will continue to play a major role in the prenatal care of expectant mothers and the mother and babe following delivery, just as we do now."
- This decision to suspend routine obstetrical services was difficult to make and was given careful and deliberate consideration, but it was clear, that at this time, maintaining an obstetrical program is not viable given the level of patient activity the hospital is currently experiencing. The hospital and medical community will re-evaluate the viability of resuming a routine labour and delivery program should circumstances within the community change and the numbers of patients requiring this service increase.