Staff Governance:
As far as the work schedule for Maternity consultants and trainees, the emergency policy put forth by the hospital’s administration—to minimize the exposure of health care providers to COVID-19—was applied. Each of the 10-unit consultants covered the service for 1 day with no weekend block to reduce risk of viral exposure with high viral load.
We also modified the rota for residents who covered the in-house 24-hour calls; we reduced the resident numbers with less duties for trainees at high risk (eg. pregnant trainees). All consultants were available by phone to answer queries from both, patients, and in-hospital staff, and to help with reading CTGs.
We also reduced the number of midwives and nursing staff to the minimum number required to maintain the service safely.