Maternity Services at Upper River Valley Hospital

Update: We are pleased to share the report that captures the valuable insights and thoughtful feedback from patients, families, community members and leaders, and health care providers who participated in the workshops.

Click the image on the left to read (or on the right of this page, click URVH Engagement on Maternity Care Summary).

We are grateful to those who took time to join us in conversation – your voices are guiding us in enhancing and refining the maternity services at URVH.

Help us sustain maternity services at URVH for years to come.

Horizon Health Network (Horizon) is committed to maintaining maternity services at Upper River Valley Hospital (URVH), and we want to hear from patients, families, clinicians, and staff to understand how we can continue to provide quality, sustainable care, for years to come.

Maternity Services at Upper River Valley Hospital

Horizon’s URVH, located in Waterville, New Brunswick, serves a population of approximately 45,000 people, and maternity services at URVH provide care to patients throughout their pregnancy journey: from first trimester, to labour and birth, to up to six weeks postnatal. The URVH labour and birth unit provides the following services:

• Prenatal care
• Labour and birth services including emergency Cesarian sections (C-sections)
• Maternal and postnatal care (up to six weeks post partum)

The obstetrical service at URVH serves up to 500 patients a year and supported 206 births and 40 emergency C-sections last year.

We need your help in identifying new, innovative solutions to service delivery

Over the past 18 months, the labour and birth unit at URVH has been experiencing staffing challenges which has created temporary challenges for expectant mothers in the community to access to these services.

Most recently, the lack of surgeon coverage to perform emergency C-sections has resulted in expectant mothers having to travel to Horizon's Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital (DECRH) in Fredericton for labour and birth services. While this most recent gap in coverage is very short term (two days in May), it indicates the broader and more systemic challenge of maintaining the necessary clinical staffing for the unit in Waterville.

Horizon has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the labour and birth unit at URVH; however, leaders at Horizon recognize developing new ideas, exploring current practices, and identifying opportunities for increasing the long-term sustainability of the unit is required.

We define sustainability of the maternity service at URVH as:

• Care is not interrupted due to lack of staffing;
• Emergency C-sections are provided by qualified clinicians in the immediate area;
• Practitioners are able to provide quality maternity care; and
• The model for maternal service delivery provides equitable access to care for patients today, and for the patients of the future, for years to come.

We acknowledge that being able to deliver close to home in a safe environment, and with familiar providers is highly valued in the community.

Community Engagement

Horizon recognizes the value of labour and birth services at the URVH, for staff, physicians and the community, and is committed to creating a space for these voices to come together, to inform future planning and decision making.

As such, Horizon is conducting a community engagement process to learn from patients, families, clinicians, staff, and the community.

Engaging with the community will enable a better understanding of the current challenges at hand, and the development of new, innovative ideas, to enhance access to labour and birth services, and strengthen the trust of our staff, physicians and community.

Contact

If you have any questions or want to speak to someone about the project, please email Horizon's Community Engagement Team at Engagement@HorizonNB.ca

Feedback and input received through this community engagement process will inform Horizon’s decision on the Upper River Valley maternity model.