University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) has been granted funding to refurbish their Rose Room as part of a scheme which transforms hospital spaces for patients at end of life.
Approximately €7,200 has been provided – €5,003 of which is a Design & Dignity Grant with the remainder coming from UMHL.
Marie Hunt, CMM2 Bereavement Counselling Midwife, UMHL, said: “On average there are 4,500 babies born here every year. Although the majority of women presenting at the Antenatal Clinic have a positive outcome, sadly there are women who experience fetal loss or fetal abnormalities.
“Our ‘Rose Room’ is a quiet room for compassionate care where parents can receive difficult news in privacy. It is situated adjoining one of the main ultrasound rooms with an interconnecting door. When a doctor identifies a foetal abnormality on the ultrasound scan or when a woman/couple have been asked to return to the hospital for the results of diagnostic tests, there needs to be a private dignified comfortable space where they can be met and cared for. For the remainder of their antenatal care the women need to have this space available for them if they wish,” said Ms Hunt.
Refurbishing the room will include painting the door and walls, change of flooring, installing soft lighting, removing the wall cupboards, installing soft furniture and adding an art feature. Clinical staff have been involved in drawing up the plans from the beginning, and many of the ideas have come from midwives, doctors and ultrasonographers working at the front line.
“The newly refurbished Rose Room will represent our commitment to providing sensitive and compassionate care to women and their families when receiving bad news while providing a private and dignified space for them to receive their care,” added Ms Hunt.
The Design & Dignity scheme previously funded a mortuary refurbishment in University Hospital Limerick as well as family rooms in St John’s Hospital and Nenagh Hospital and a bereavement suite in Ennis Hospital.
Mary Lovegrove, Design & Dignity Project Manager with the IHF said: “Our vision for the Design & Dignity project is for an end of life sanctuary in every public hospital in the country by 2021 with approximately 60 projects completed as well as a HSE National Mortuary Capitals Programme underway.”
