NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association: Rallying for maternity services

Campbelltown Hospital midwives have raised fears about the safety of newborn babies, saying staffing levels are inadequate.

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Fears for the safety of newborn babies and their mothers at Campbelltown Hospital has triggered a public rally, led by the hospital’s own midwives and nurses.

Campbelltown and Camden branch members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association say staffing levels have failed to keep pace with the region’s population explosion, with staff workloads now reaching perilous levels.

Louisa Ainscough, a branch member and speaker at the rally which will take place this Wednesday, told the Chronicle that meetings with Campbelltown Hospital management had fallen on deaf ears.

Campbelltown Hospital’s midwives say they are understaffed.

“The staff are worried about safe work practices and the safety of mothers and babies,” she said.

“The idea is to get more staffing as quickly as possible and to try and implement some measures to help, in the interim, improve the workloads and safety of mothers and babies.”

Ms Ainscough said staffing levels at Campbelltown Hospital maternity services were out of proportion, with nearly double the number of midwives rostered on each night at Liverpool Hospital compared to Campbelltown, despite registering fewer annual births.

Campbelltown Hospital midwives in 2016.

A South West Sydney Health District spokeswoman did not respond to a question about staffing numbers at Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals birthing units, but said the maternity services provided at the facilities were considerably different.

“We are working with our midwifery team, to support them in delivering high quality, safe care to mothers and babies in the Macarthur community,” said a Campbelltown Hospital spokeswoman.

“To meet the needs of our growing community, our midwifery workforce has increased since

2016 with an additional 22.8 full time equivalents.

“We have begun a comprehensive recruitment campaign to fill vacancies and are advertising

widely, including on social media and traditional channels.

“We are also working with a new nursing agency to bring on more casual midwives and

nurses.”

The spokeswoman said a number of strategies, including the employment of a new women’s and children’s manager, monitoring of daily staffing levels and a roster review, were currently taking place.

The community rally will be held at 12pm Wednesday at Marsden Park, Park Central.