War of words erupts over scrapped RBWH maternity plans

A big baby blue has erupted over now-scrapped plans to revamp maternity services at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital that would have included putting grieving women close to crying newborns.

Maternity services at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital are at the centre of a political row. Picture: David Clark

A row has erupted over who’s to blame for a plan to overhaul maternity services at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital that would have left women grieving the loss of a pregnancy next to healthy newborns.

Health Minister Tim Nicholls axed the proposal on Tuesday, just hours after he learned of the controversial plan via questions from The Courier-Mail.

The Labor government has slammed him for blaming former Health Minister Shannon Fentiman for authorising the maternity business plan on the eve of the caretaker period – from October 1-26 in the lead-up to the state election – asking why it had taken him 103 days to take action.

Labor insists that because the consultation on the plan began during the caretaker period, the former government had no knowledge of the proposals.

But in a fiery press conference Mr Nicholls produced a briefing note dated September 11, claiming it as evidence that Ms Fentiman was aware of the proposal and failed to intervene prior to the election.

Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls. Picture: Brendan Radke

The briefing note, which has been requested by The Courier-Mail, is an information notice sent to Ms Fentiman’s office.

Mr Nicholls says the brief was signed by Ms Fentiman’s chief of staff as “noted”.

“Noted means that you are aware of the proposal and you know that it’s going ahead,” he said.

“I would think that if you’re aware of the proposal and you don’t support it, you would put “not approved,” because there’s a provision to put not approved, and that’s not ticked on this box.”

However, opposition health spokesman Mark Bailey said the minister’s “excuses are just not good enough”.

“Why did he take so long to stop this plan?”

“What has he been doing as Health Minister for the last 103 days? He obviously has no idea what his department is doing.

“The nurses and maternity consumers have been urgently requesting the minister intervene and stop this from proceeding but Tim Nicholls ignored their calls until he got a media inquiry,” Mr Bailey said.

“The Health Minister should have ended this proposal long before it got this far.”

Mr Nicholls repeated that he was blindsided by the news of the proposal, claiming he was left in the dark by his own staff for three months, despite emails sent to his office from concerned doctors and midwives as recently as last week.

“This matter hasn’t come to my attention before now, and I’ve asked exactly the same question of the department as to why this continued without bringing it to my attention,” Mr Nicholls said.

Former health minister Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

Consultation on the RBWH proposal began in October during the government’s caretaker mode.

Asked whether the Minister had oversight on hospital’s decisions, Mr Nicholls again referred back to the briefing note.

“These sorts of decisions are, as you can see by the paperwork, are usually sent up to the minister’s office for oversight,” he said

“This briefing note actually notes the sensitivities around it, the previous sensitivities around it, from the previous attempt that Yvette D’Ath had to stop way back in 2022 when it was first proposed.

“It’s been signed off. It’s been sent back, and no record of it has been provided to me since I came to office on the first of November.

“I’ll be digging down into how this was allowed to continue to operate, given that there’s been a change in government.”

Mr Nicholls confirmed his Director-General David Rosengren was not aware of the proposal until Tuesday.

The Labor spokesman for health said that Mr Nicholls needed to explain to nurses, midwives and mums today why he hasn’t taken action before now to stop distress.

The proposal, seen by The Courier-Mail, revealed hospital bosses wanted to establish a High Risk Antenatal and Gynaecology Unit at the RBWH by putting the two wards together.

Shadow health minister Mark Bailey. Picture: Steve Pohlner

If allowed to proceed the move would have been a return to 2022 when then health minister Yvette D’Ath was forced to axe the co-location of gynaecology and maternity, admitting it was a mistake following reports of distressed, grieving mothers discharging themselves early.

More than 100 members of WNS staff gave feedback on the proposal, with over 90 per cent against Metro North Health’s “Business Case for Significant Change”.

The business plan was released to staff last October, and prompted the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Unit to raise concerns with management around fears the plan will see women who have just miscarried or lost their babies staying close to newborns.

The security of women and babies sleeping in an unlocked unit was also flagged as an issue due to their proximity to wandering patients with mental health conditions, dementia or infectious diseases, leaving vulnerable new mothers and babies open to risk.

The plan to get rid of bereavement rooms that allow a private and safe space for grieving mothers was also slammed by staff in the survey as compromising care.

“Families with multiple births will also lose access to appropriately designed rooms,” the survey states.

Staff also highlighted concerns about dealing with obstetric emergencies due to limited number of midwives and the proposal to have maternity patients in two separate potentially delaying neonatal emergency responses due to confusion around where the patients are located.

Originally published as War of words erupts over scrapped RBWH maternity plans