Maternity turf war delays Cooktown birthing services reopening
A senior Far North doctor has revealed a critical maternity service was due to resume three months ago before new recruits suddenly withdrew.
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Four out of five new doctors recruited for a reopening of Cooktown’s maternity services pulled out because of allegations of a toxic workplace culture, according to a union representative.
Together Queensland vice president Sandy Donald said the conflict at Cooktown, where maternity services remain offline, was a result of a difference in care models between midwives and doctors.
He claims the issues in Cooktown were worse than anywhere else in the state.
“The most frustrating thing with this is they had recruited five GP obstetricians three months ago one of which was going to act as a reliever, but four of them at least have now withdrawn,” Dr Donald said.
“Recruiting, if you have a dreadful reputation, is extremely difficult.
“Three months ago it was almost definite that birthing services were going to reopen.”
Expectant mothers from the Cooktown and Weipa areas face a long trip to Cairns or Townsville to welcome a new baby, due to lack of closer services.
Services in Cooktown shutdown in February 2022 due to difficulties retaining and recruiting staff; the same reason services at Weipa were unable to open as planned in January.
In an exclusive News Corp report, a turf war between midwives and regional doctors is leading to a recruitment crisis crippling the state’s maternity services including in the Far North.
According to that report, a leaked email revealed Innisfail’s maternity services were also on the brink of collapse.
Dr Donald, who has worked in the Far North since 1995 as an anaesthetist as well as in intensive care for 20 years, claims there had been “no serious attempt to manage the fact that the doctors and the midwives have incompatible models of care”.
“The doctors are following the official Queensland model of health which is shared care and the midwives have an exclusive midwife-only model so there is clearly a clash which has not been managed.
“GP obstetricians in small hospitals are increasingly worried that things will go badly wrong and they will be blamed and that is a very real fear.
“Queensland Health at the moment seems completely obsessed by rapid change but not by process.
“There appears to be no interest in monitoring safety when changes are made without consultation or announcement.
“There was no sign of oversight by Queensland Health and the union has raised it with head office and failed to get any real interest or intervention.”
Dr Donald said there were examples around the state where disagreements between doctors and midwives had been well managed.
“There are hospitals around the state where the midwives and doctors continue to work collaboratively,” he said.
“And it’s not as if every Midwifery Group practice is implementing a model of care that is incompatible with what doctors believe is safe practice”
“The issue seems to be a lack of central planning, consultation, and co-operation and an apparent lack of understanding of exactly how unhappy the doctors are.”
In a statement Queensland Health said: “Maternity care has always been delivered in a multidisciplinary fashion. To ensure the health system remains safe and sustainable in the face of increasing demand and growing pressures, it is essential we have innovative models of care in place allowing for multidisciplinary teams to practice to their full scope.
“The national workforce shortages in obstetrics and gynaecology – along with the maldistribution of these specialists – have made it extremely difficult to recruit and retain staff throughout Queensland, threatening the viability of maternity services in a number of regional and remote sites.
“We are exploring every possible solution to manage the delivery of neonatal, maternity, and gynaecological services in Queensland public hospitals where filling critical vacancies has been challenging.”
Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Chief Executive Beverley Hamerton said it had have established a process to manage and resolve work related issues between staff.
“As with all career pathways, medical and other health service staff move around for a number of reasons including personal circumstances,” Ms Hamerton said
“It’s an employee’s personal decision to leave their employment and we are unable to comment on these choices.
“We have established process to manage and resolve any work-related issues between staff.”
Ms Hamerton also reinforced the health service is continuing to recruit to bring the return of birthing services to Cooktown.
“Our staff at Cooktown work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team to deliver the best quality services to our patients in what is often a high-pressure and challenging environment,” she said.
“We understand the continuing suspension of birthing services at the Cooktown Multipurpose Health Service is a stressful time for expectant mothers and their families.
MUM ‘MINUTES’ FROM GIVING BIRTH ON SIDE OF ROAD
A young Mossman mother says she feared she would give birth on the side of the road in the Far North, and only made it with minuntes to spare before her second child was born in a Cairns hospital.
Mel Bladin says she knows of three other women over the past few years who did give birth on the side of the road on a stretch of road in the Far North.
While she was lucky to give birth in hospital — but only by minutes — she believes there should be more services closer to home.
On Sunday it was revealed Queensland Health had been forced to deny claims another regional maternity unit was about to go on bypass after a leaked email revealed fears Innisfail would be the next to fall.
Meanwhile, families are continuing to advocate for greater access to birthing services near Port Douglas to avoid a rush down to Cairns or Mareeba.
Ms Bladin has made the drive from Mareeba twice while in labour — the second time was only six weeks ago was much more stressful.
“My first, Ella, was born after a 32-hour labour but the second, Zoe, wasn't even four hours,” Ms Bladin said.
“I have a fantastic midwife and she advised me to get a move on and get on the road, which was lucky because if I left it any longer I could well have been having my baby on the side of the road.
“We stopped quickly for a bathroom break and I was worried I might have to start pushing.
“It was really scary.”
Ms Bladin said it was not just the risk of a roadside birth that could cause issues for mothers and their newborns.
“It can have a huge effect on the labour as well, it can prolong the birth and stall the labour which can have orther flow on effects and increase risk factors,” Ms Bladin said.
Families Fighting to Reopen Mossman Maternity, an advocacy group started by Jesse Goetze, has been fighting for almost five years as they push for birthing services that support a mothers choice on where, how and who to birth with should be available to every woman no matter where she lives.
A spokesman for The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service confirmed there was only pre and post-natal maternity care at Mossman Multi-Purpose Health Service, but not full birthing services.
“However, our medical and nursing staff are trained in imminent birthing, to mitigate the risks associated with unplanned births in non-birthing facilities,” he said.
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