Obstetrician arrives in Gladstone to support embattled maternity service

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed a doctor will fly into Gladstone today to assist with maternity services in the Central Queensland region.

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A specialist doctor will arrive in Gladstone today to offer support to the embattled maternity services department and allow emergency C-sections to be delivered, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath revealed.

Pregnant mothers in the Central Queensland region have faced the harrowing prospect of having to travel 100km north to Rockhampton to deliver their babies but the arrival of the locum doctor will allow around-the-clock operation for emergency caesareans.

Ms D’Ath confirmed on Monday morning the doctor would arrive later today and begin orientation this afternoon.

“Over the coming days they will work through all of the operational issues to get that phase two of the services started again,” she told reporters.

“That will allow us to go to the 24/7, so we already had the planned caesareans and this will be the 24/7 emergency care, so any emergency caesareans.”

The doctor will begin work in Gladstone in he coming days.

The Health Minister said full maternity services would still be out of action until the middle of the year, when four locum doctors are expected to be deployed to the Central Queensland city.

A record intake of junior doctors will be deployed in Queensland next month, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed on Monday, but a shortage of specialist doctors across the state is undermining health care available in the regions.

She told reporters that recruitment and deployment of specialist doctors was “the next category up” to the 834 junior doctors employed in intern roles.

The Premier insisted the workforce shortages in the sector was an issue weighing on all states and expected the concerns to raised at national cabinet this week.

“It’s a big issue not just in Queensland but across Australia,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“It’s about attracting those specialists out to rural and regional remote parts of the country, including Queensland.”

Ms D’Ath said the vacancy rate in a range of frontline and specialist health care roles remained an issue for the sector.

“It’s not just in doctors, it’s nurses (and) it’s allied health workers — there is a shortage of health workers across the nation and across the globe.”

Speaking of the extra frontline staff, the Australian Medical Association said Queensland Health must come up with a strategy on how to “take the best care of ” and retain the new medical interns.

While the state’s peak medical body welcomes the Premier’s announcement that 834 medical interns will start work next month, president Maria Boulton told The Courier-Mail that retention was as important as recruitment and the government must recruit “appropriate professionals” to deliver the best care to Queenslanders.

“These new junior doctors will be champing at the bit to start their medical careers and be of service to patients in rural, regional and metropolitan hospitals,” Dr Boulton said.

“We know that Queensland is an excellent place to work, with first class medical and training opportunities,” she said.

“At all stages, retention is as important as recruitment and AMAQ looks forward to working with Queensland Health to take the best care of these new interns.”

“It’s so important for Queensland Health to develop a long-term workforce strategy that looks at recruitment and retention simultaneously and employs the appropriate professionals to deliver the appropriate health services,” she said.

Each year, AMAQ conducts the Resident Hospital Health Check survey, which asks junior doctors about their experiences in Queensland hospitals in regards to training, professional development opportunities, health and wellbeing and culture.

The 2022 survey showed that only 38 per cent of doctors were satisfied with formal training and 25 per cent were satisfied with their clinical training.

“We would like to see training prioritised and great care taken for the health and wellbeing of these new doctors,” said Dr Boulton.

The AMAQ has recently expressed concern that there are not enough experienced doctors in some hospitals to train registrars.

Mackay Base Hospital has lost it accreditation to teach in obstetrics and is under investigation to see if it retains its general surgical training accreditation.