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HEALTH

Probe sheds light on Italy childbirth deaths

Italy's health ministry said on Tuesday that probes into a spate of women dying in childbirth had uncovered issues in the handling of three fatal cases, but stopped short of suggesting lives might have been saved.

Probe sheds light on Italy childbirth deaths
Probes into a spate of women dying in childbirth had uncovered issues in the handling of three fatal cases. Photo: Joel Saget/AFP

Italy, which has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, suffered five deaths in seven days between December 25th and 31st.

That led some doctors to suggest staff shortages and cutbacks were endangering patients lives over the holiday period.

Leading gynaecologists suggested some of the patients might have been saved through better screening of older and overweight pregnant women at risk of thrombosis or heart problems.

Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin ordered investigations into four of the five deaths, resulting in the preliminary report on Tuesday.

It said all appropriate procedures appeared to have been followed in the case of Angela Nesta, 39, who suffered a cardiac arrest leading to a still birth during her labour in a Turin clinic on December 29th.

In the other three cases, the report highlighted communication and organizational problems in the response to emergencies without suggesting that life-or-death mistakes had been made.

It talks of “some misalignment” in staff accounts of the treatment of 29-year-old Giovanna Lazzari, who died in a Brescia clinic on New Year's Eve, a day after arriving in its emergency unit eight months pregnant and showing symptoms of gastroenteritis.

In the case of Marta Lazzarin, who died in Bassano del Grappa in northeastern Italy on December 29th, the report said the hospital had not communicated clearly with her family about the level of risk she faced as a result of a bacterial infection.

It also allegedly failed to manage the patient's pain adequately.

But the report said antibiotics had been administered appropriately as soon as the possibility of a dangerous infection had been identified.

The report said the case of Anna Massignan, a 34-year-old doctor who died in a Verona hospital after an emergency caeseran on Christmas Day, raised several questions of an organizational and clinical nature.

The report suggests these may have impacted the speed with which a decision to order the surgery was made, but emphasised there was no preliminary indication a different outcome could have been achieved.

Doctors delivered Massignan's son alive but he died several hours later.

According to World Bank figures, Italy has had one of the ten lowest rates of maternal mortality for the last decade.

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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