Premier Jay Weatherill and Health Minister Jack Snelling announce funding for new Women’s Hospital at nRAH

MIDWIVES, nurses and doctors have questioned a State Government decision to separate women’s and children’s health services by building two separate new hospitals, saying it will not improve patient care.

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MIDWIVES, nurses and doctors have questioned a State Government decision to separate women’s and children’s health services by building two separate new hospitals, saying it will not improve patient care.

The State Government on Tuesday announced it would spend $528 million to build a new Adelaide Women’s Hospital, connected to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on North Tce in the CBD.

It will also spend $64.4 million to upgrade the existing Women’s and Children’s Hospital while it develops plans for a separate Children’s Hospital.

The plan makes good on only half a promise made by Premier Jay Weatherill ahead of the 2014 state election to relocate the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in its entirety.

Ministers insist the change is based on the advice of clinicians but the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have questioned the logic.

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Both groups say they lobbied the Government to build a new hospital which brings women’s and children’s services together in the city. They fear separating the two will cause logistical problems and lose the efficiency of critical mass at one site.

AMA SA president William Tam said it was “a shame” that the services would be separated.

“This was a commitment to the community that it would co-locate both the women’s and children’s services near the new RAH,” he said.

“It’s a shame, really, to see the separation occur and a return to the past.

“The other concern we have is that now that we have this separation, it has the potential to disconnect the clinicians who have to look after both paediatric patients and neonates.”

ANMF SA secretary Elizabeth Dabars said her organisation had a “preference” for co-location so that hospital staff did not have to run two systems between the hospitals.

“What we’re interested in exploring now is will the efficiencies (the Government is promising) be realised?” she said.

Health Minister Jack Snelling insisted on Tuesday that clinicians advised that the “staged” approach was best for patients and would be cheaper for taxpayers.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said the change of plans showed Labor could not be trusted to deliver on its promises.

Mr Marshall said a Liberal Government would deliver one new hospital comprising women’s and children’s services.

The hospital funding is part of a $1.1 billion health package to be fully detailed in Thursday’s state Budget.

It will be Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis’ final full-year Budget splurge before the March 2018 election.

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The new hospital will treat women during their pregnancy, delivery and recovery and provide neonatal services, including intensive care.

It will also offer mental health services and have access to the helipad at the new RAH, to reduce the risk of transferring maternity and neonatal emergency patients.

Mr Snelling said the hospital would be a great benefit “in situations where a mother may experience a difficult birth and require acute intensive care at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital”.

“Having access to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital’s helipad will also significantly improve the timeliness of access to air services for high-risk maternal and neonate emergencies,” he said.

Mr Snelling said he was confident the cost of the Adelaide Women’s Hospital would not blow out, despite significant budget increases during the building of the now $2.1 billion new RAH.

A further $24 million has been pledged over two years towards a total $64.4 million upgrade to the existing Women’s and Children’s Hospital in North Adelaide, where Mr Snelling said children older than newborns would continue to receive care for at least a decade.

He said the new plans would not lead to any reduction in the number of staff or beds across the hospitals.

A site for a new Children’s Hospital will be identified by the end of 2019 — likely to be in the new RAH “precinct” — but Mr Snelling could not give a cost estimate for the second facility.

He rejected suggestions the Government had “run out of space” to put all facilities on the new RAH site now.

The split approach is based on models used elsewhere.

“This is not an unusual configuration,” Mr Snelling said.

“You’ve got in Melbourne the Royal Melbourne Hospital adjacent to the Royal Melbourne Women’s Hospital ... with their Children’s Hospital about 800m down the road,” he said.

However, Mr Marshall described the announcement as “a delayed project ... a postponed project, a scaled down project, a project which we’ll probably never see”.

Mr Marshall said health professionals had told the Liberal Party that locating women’s and children’s services on one new site was the “best practice model and that’s the model the Liberal Party will be implementing”.

The Opposition has described Tuesday’s announcement — 1334 days after Premier Jay Weatherill’s original $600 million pledge for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital — as “more political fantasy by a Government addicted to re-announcements”.

The construction phase of the new Adelaide Women’s Hospital is expected to create 1900 full-time equivalent jobs.