Belfast residents fear cuts to maternity care at local hospital

Residents of the Belfast area are concerned about an announcement from the local hospital that it’s reviewing its obstetrics services amid declining numbers of child births and difficulty finding staff.

In a statement last month, officials at Waldo County General Hospital said they have not made any decisions about whether to keep offering those services, but they noted that the hospital’s birth volumes are very low by national standards, due in part to the area’s older population and also the decision of more parents to give birth at other nearby hospitals. They also said it has become increasingly difficult to find enough staff to maintain the service at all times.

“We have asked a team of our provider and nursing leaders from WCGH to look at how we might redesign our labor and delivery services to ensure we are providing the very best possible care to expectant mothers and their babies,” said Denise Needham, president of the Belfast hospital. “This redesign is not complete, and we will be working diligently to complete it in coming weeks.”

Needham is also the president of Pen Bay Medical Center, a hospital about 30 minutes away that’s also run by the Portland-based parent organization MaineHealth.

But at a Belfast City Council meeting Tuesday night, multiple people expressed fear that the hospital could ultimately stop offering all maternal care services.

Several other rural Maine hospitals have either reduced or ended their maternity care services in recent years, including Rumford Hospital , St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston and Calais Community Hospital .

One of the speakers on Tuesday was Samantha Gilligan, the director of another Belfast health care facility, Seaport Community Health Center.

“I understand completely the financial strain on our health care system and that we must adapt accordingly by implementing strategic operational changes, but we also need to make sure that we’re taking care of our patients and our community,” Gilligan said at the meeting.

Gilligan noted she was “disheartened” by an email that the hospital sent out about the review of its obstetrics department. She said it implied “the likely possibility that MaineHealth will choose to close the labor and delivery unit at Waldo hospital, due to low birth rates.”

City Councilor Neal Harkness also expressed frustration with the possibility of a closure and said he might suggest the council draft a statement opposing any such changes. In addition to affecting the ability of patients to get care, he said, it could lead to job cuts in the city.

“I think this is a big deal,” Harkness said.

MaineHealth says there have been 60 births so far at Waldo County General Hospital in the 2024 fiscal year and projects a total of 112 by year’s end. That would be a 19.4 percent decrease from five years earlier.

In its statement, the organization also noted that it’s expanding some other services at the Belfast facility that are more in demand among the area’s growing population of older residents, including cardiac and oncology care.