A leak in the roof and damp all the way to the basement, dirty sheets, a lack of medical personnel on all levels, too many babies to look after, a building in which the ventilation and the temperature regulation system on the premises do not function or has barely functioned since its commissioning. There is no running water, as well as old incubators and a high mortality of 127 newborns from the beginning of 2017 until the end of September, are the grave problems at the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Mother Teresa Clinical Center, in Skopje.
The efficient supervision the inspectorate carried out after receiving information concerning the death of four newborns in one night in the second half of September, but also at the request of the director Viktorija Jovanovska, found that the department for intensive and post-intensive care, where the four newborns died, has too little staff , and instead of 25 babies, which is the capacity, at the moment the inspectors entered, there were as many as 49 babies, that is, two babies to one incubator.
“The clinic has a shortage of nurses – midwives, technicians, and a lack of staff in the cytology laboratory. There is also a lack of a system for good ventilation, the system for thermoregulation on the premises does not work, starting from neonatology, and in all the other rooms”, said Irina Sotirova- Buhova, while presenting some of the findings of the inspectors.
She also said that the bed sheets and beds were found in very bad condition, there was no running water, the sterilizers did not work for heating the diapers, and the sterilizer for the bottles, according to the inspectors, they were old and worn out.
The director of the clinic, Jovanovska, confirmed these allegations, emphasizing that these are problems that the clinic has faced for years. Jovanovska, pointed out that she has been working at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic for 20 years, noted that the conditions, apart from the department where the risky newborns are taken, are not too alarming. In that department, however, in each of the two shifts, four nurses and two doctors care for the babies at risk.
“Imagine, currently the nurses receive around 150 denars each for the night shift, and each of them has to take care of approximately fifty babies. This must be stopped”, said Jovanovska.
