Cairns Hospital announces plan to hire extra staff amid possible end to private maternity services
Public maternity services will be expanded and extra staff will be hired at Cairns Hospital to cope with extra demand if health giant Ramsay Health pulls private birthing services. See the detail.
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Public maternity services will be expanded and extra staff hired at Cairns Hospital to cope with extra demand if health giant Ramsay Health pulls birthing services at the Cairns Private Hospital.
Expectant mums and maternity staff at Cairns Private Hospital are keeping pressure on Ramsay Health, who have so far failed to deliver any assurance that top-shelf birthing services will remain available for private patients at the Upward St facility.
Concerns have been raised that an additional 350 babies delivered by staff at Cairns Private each year would cripple the public system if Ramsay Health pulled maternity services and patients were forced to give birth at Cairns Hospital.
Each year more than 2700 babies are delivered through the Cairns public system.
On Tuesday, freshly minted Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chief executive Leena Singh issued a fiery statement that appeared to pre-empt the shutdown of private maternity services.
“If required, we will methodically and safely transition maternity services for women who were planning to birth at the private hospital to ensure they receive the best and safest care possible,” she said.
“This will, of course, include employing extra staff, if needed.
“While obstetrics and gynaecological recruitment is a challenge in many regions, we have had no issues recruiting to our consultant positions, with the Cairns region viewed by medical staff as an attractive place to live and work.”
Ms Singh refuted an assertion by the Australian Medical Association Queensland and Opposition leader David Crisafulli that the sector was on the brink of crisis.
However Redlynch mum Krista Oosen due to deliver her fifth baby in October remained unconvinced the public system could match the quality of care she experienced at the private system.
“We have chosen to go private every time, that’s the reason we have private health,” she said.
“I would elect to do a home birth (rather) than to go the public system.
“If there is more people in the public system then it’s a lose-lose situation for everyone.
“We spend a lot of money on private heath and if everyone has to go through the one hospital, my God.”
Ms Oosen said the only other option was to use maternity services in Townsville, but that was unrealistic given her history of short labours.
“My births have been quite fast, one was two hours from waters breaking to having the baby, so the baby could come by the time we got to Gordonvale,” she said.
On Saturday, Cairns Private Hospital chief Ben Tooth said no decision had been made to close the maternity unit and that his organisation had been “reviewing the service with the main priority being to ensure the service can be operated safely”.
On Tuesday that position had not changed, but Mr Tooth applauded the support of the Cairns Hospital.
“I welcome support from the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service and want to echo its statement discrediting claims of a ‘maternity crisis at Cairns’,” he said.
“Cairns Hospital offers a well-resourced maternity service and we’ve been working closely with them on options for the continuing operation of private maternity services in the region.”
Cairns Private Hospital has been open about the “incredible difficulty” in recruiting obstetricians and paediatricians, an issue exacerbated by the death of respected obstetrician Dr Tom Wright in February last year and the looming retirement of paediatrician Dr Tim Warnock expected in July.
AMAQ president Dr Maria Boulton said dozens of Queensland Health obstetrician vacancies meant additional staff needed to meet an increased public system demand would not be easily achieved.
“Cairns will have to compete against other regions that are also in urgent need of workforce,” she said.
Cairns midwife Narelle Ashworth employed by the private birthing sector said a 15 per cent increase of babies forced into the public system would have major flow on impacts.
“It would add extra pressure to the public sector for sure, not just in terms of increases in the number of women giving birth, but in other specialist waiting lists rising as families shift from private to public,” she said.
“For a community, it is huge, we legitimately have patients from Tully to Thursday Island, even New Guinea, and it beggars belief that it can happen in Cairns with a population of 170,000.
“This is about our community and keeping medical services in the region.”
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Originally published as Cairns Hospital announces plan to hire extra staff amid possible end to private maternity services
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