Qld health crisis: No fix for maternity heartbreak till 2023

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath says the traumatic experience of locating grieving mothers with newborns in hospital will continue.

Mothers who have lost babies will be placed on the same floor as maternity wards at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital until at least next year, with Health Minister Yvette D’Ath blaming Covid-19 for the “heartbreaking” practice.

The Sunday Mail revealed this week that the decision for some women whose babies had died to receive care in maternity wards – called “torture” by one grieving mother – was still in place at the RBWH, despite Ms D’Ath’s pledge to end the practice last year.

At the time it had been revealed there was a proposal to permanently combine the maternity and obstetrics ward, and the gynaecology ward – which Ms D’Ath said would not proceed following significant outrage.

On Tuesday Ms D’Ath told parliament the gynaecology unit would be relocated in early 2023 to its previous location following the standing down of the Covid response in early September, but a full refurbishment of the ward would be undertaken first.

“In the interim, mitigating measures were established to physically separate the wards during the Covid response,” she said.

“There are many decisions – heartbreaking decisions – that hospitals had to make due to the pressures on our hospitals, not just with over 1000 Covid patients in hospital beds but also over 3000 staff furloughed as a consequence of Covid.”

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in Question Time on Tuesday. Picture: Sarah Marshall/NCA NewsWire

But Ms D’Ath also said that irrespective of that, clinicians would make decisions they believed were in the best interest of patients.

“It will always be, from time to time, that a woman who has lost a child will need to be situated in obstetrics which is often referred to as women’s health units – it is not just obstetrics, not just maternity – where the specialists are and where they believe it is the most appropriate place for that person to be cared for,” she said.

“With respect to the story that has been printed in recent days, the hospital has advised me they have gone back and reviewed the entire particular case and said that all decisions made were the correct decisions at that time relating to that individual’s needs and circumstances.

“I understand that from time to time those women will be aggrieved by those decisions, but it has to be done on clinical grounds.”

Ms D’Ath was asked multiple questions on the practice during Tuesday’s Question Time, while Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was asked by Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie: “At what point will the Premier say enough is enough and sack the Health Minister?”

Ms Palaszczuk did not directly respond, saying: “Honestly, coming from the Member for Kawana, please! I rest my case with the Member for Kawana.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said: “Yvette D’Ath is losing the support of her colleagues and Queenslanders can no longer trust her to fix the Queensland health crisis.”