Maternity wards in the Copenhagen will soon be receiving pregnant mums from the other side of the Øresund.
According to the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan, four hospitals in Region Hovedstaden, the Copenhagen area local health authority, have entered into an agreement with the Scania University Hospital to admit pregnant Swedes.
Sydsvenskan reports that the Swedish hospital is currently struggling with a lack of resources that makes it difficult to accommodate pregnant women in the southern Sweden region.
"We have previously sent mums to Copenhagen but that's been for intensive neonatal care, not because our own maternity clinics were filled up," Scania University Hospital spokesperson Andreas Herbst told Sydsvenskan.
The deputy chief for communicable diseases in Scania, Eva Gustafsson, worried that in addition to bringing home their little bundles of joy, new mothers may also transport multi-resistant bacteria back to Sweden.
"Denmark has more problems than Sweden [with multi-resistant bacteria]," Gustafsson told Sydsvenskan. "With increased patient flow, it will be important to glean information on even small, localised outbreaks."
Gustafsson added, however, that hospitals and clinics in both Denmark and Sweden have lower levels of multi-resistant bacteria than other European countries.
