Cairns Private Hospital maternity unit extended until September
Advocates fighting for continued private birthing options have celebrated a minor victory following reassurances that maternity services will be retained … but only in the short term.
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Advocates fighting for continued private birthing options have celebrated a minor victory following reassurances from Cairns Private Hospital that maternity services will be retained for the next four months.
There has been ongoing concern that private medical giant Ramsay Health Care will not continue to offer birthing services at the Upward St facility.
For anxious mums-to-be entering their third trimester of pregnancy the update comes as a huge relief.
About half of patients booked to give birth are now guaranteed of a Cairns Private Hospital delivery.
But beyond September 30 the future of the unit remains in doubt.
A campaign spearheaded by the Courier Mail and the Cairns Post has been key in the fight to stave off the shut down of private maternity services, according to industry insiders.
Cairns Private Hospital’s only full time paediatrician Dr Tim Warnock is due to retire in June after helping to deliver babies for 33-years in Cairns.
He was dismayed that a year’s long drive to recruit specialist birthing staff had failed to deliver long-serving staff.
“Over the last five to seven years we have worked to make sure the service continues, we have been chipping away to try and maintain the service, but it has not worked out,” he said.
“The most recent recruits arrived the day after Tom’s passing, one left immediately the other guy had family issues and had to leave.
“My main disappointment is I have not got anyone to take over my practice.”
Following the suicide of veteran obstetrician Dr Tom Wright in February last year coupled with the announcement that Cairns Private obstetrician Dr Kiesey-Calding will stop delivering at the end of June, and obstetrician Dr Liz Jackson stepping way from private births last March, the sector is facing a perfect staffing storm generous incentives have been unable to quell.
A recent obstetrician position listed on the Australian Medical Association Queensland jobs board offered financial underwriting for 12-months and an urgent call for maternity locums paying $2,000 per day for a year was issued by Cairns Hospital, but positions have yet to be filled.
Plummeting births at Cairns Private that numbered 544 in 2015, dropped dramatically to 387 in 2021 and last year just 337 babies were delivered by the hospital.
The staffing crisis, financial viability of the service and conflict among doctors is understood to have contributed Ramsay Health not offering assurances beyond September that the unit will stay open.
But Cairns private sector midwife Narelle Ashworth was buoyed by certainly offered to some mothers planning births at Cairns Private Hospital.
“At least half of our patients are feeling safer but the other half are still feeling anxious, we have women booked through to December,” she said.
“We still have some time to work towards a positive outcome and (the extension of services) gives some people certainty.”
An online petition calling on Ramsay Health to commit, long-term, to maternity services has attracted the support of 1237 signatories.
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