Due to the staff shortage in healthcare, Eindhoven will have a maternity care hotel. In the Holiday Inn on Veldmaarschalk Montgomerylaan, brand new mothers and their offspring will be taken care of for three months from Wednesday. Mothers who refuse hotel admission and hope for home help run the risk of not receiving maternity care.
The maternity care hotel is a collaboration between major health insurers in the region (ZilverenKruis, CZ, Menzis and Coöperatie VGZ) and the maternity care organizations Kraamzus, Kraamzorg VDA and Zorgmed.
Born out of necessity
For the time being, the maternity care hotel is only for the customers of those maternity care organisations. The maternity care hotel is not an obligation, but because of staff shortages, the organizations say they ‘cannot guarantee that maternity care is possible at home’.
This guarantee does exist in the maternity care hotel. “Of course we always try to comply with the duty of care, even if someone refuses to go to a hotel, the duty of care remains in force. But if we can’t deliver, we can’t deliver,” says a spokesperson for Coöperatie VGZ.
According to VGZ, it will be ‘exciting’ in more places in the Netherlands, but Eindhoven takes the cake. “Here there is a combination of the holiday period, the staff shortage and a large amount of requests for maternity care. It all comes together in these three months. We do this to limit risks.”
Instructional videos instead of maternity nurses
At the Holiday Inn, a maternity nurse can take care of several women 24 hours a day. Every mother gets her own room. Partners can stay overnight, but children cannot.
After your stay at the hotel you can still receive maternity care at home, but according to the organizations this will probably be digital maternity care. This means that parents can log in to a website where they can watch instructional videos that help during the maternity period.