Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Maternity services

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:28): (1036) My adjournment matter for the Minister for Health concerns the shock closure of Camperdown Hospital’s maternity services. I use the word ‘shock’ advisedly. The announcement last week came as a bolt from the blue, not just for the local community but even for the doctors and midwives providing the service. Even to say ‘announcement’ overstates it. There was no public comment from South West Healthcare, let alone a consultation. On 5 August, without warning, Camperdown clinicians were informed with immediate effect that maternity services would be indefinitely downgraded from level 3 to level 1, ending all planned births. A terse statement quoted in the Camperdown Chronicle on 9 August was attributed simply to a South West Healthcare spokesperson. There was no media statement. The only outlet given the story was the Camperdown Chronicle.

The background seems to be this: a woman due to give birth at Colac Area Health was told she could not, as they had no obstetrician and declared themselves on bypass. The Camperdown midwife established that as the patient was not yet in labour and her previous medical history suggested some chance of haemorrhage it was safer to travel 20 minutes further to attend the larger maternity unit at Warrnambool, which operates a blood bank. Unfortunately, the rapid progression of her labour meant she gave birth in the Warrnambool hospital car park – safely, however, and with no adverse consequences for mother or child.

The Camperdown service did the right thing, yet without seeking input from clinicians involved, unidentified South West Healthcare bureaucrats immediately closed the service. The supposed review has no timeline, and the anonymous decision and failure to communicate reinforces the local belief that South West Healthcare wants to close its rural maternity service. Maternity in Camperdown has an excellent safety record. It is an important pillar of a rural hospital, yet South West Healthcare appear hell-bent on closing it. Management have accorded the doctors involved no respect, with no communication in writing, nor have they consulted the community or even made a public announcement. Local medical practitioners are furious, and a walkout in solidarity is a serious possibility, with crippling results for Camperdown health care.

The action I seek is for the minister to intervene to answer some very basic questions: who made this decision? Why was it made? Why is it communicated to the professionals and public so poorly? And does the indefinite suspension imply a predetermined review to facilitate the amalgamation, which will end maternity services – by stealth – in Camperdown for good?