Mother-baby unit branded broken promise, Labor says

Further clarity on the services a new $6m mother-baby unit in Hobart has emerged, however not all are happy that new mums with acute mental health conditions won’t be treated there.

Labor claims mothers with acute mental health conditions won’t be treated in new $6m mother-baby unit.

A new mother-baby unit to be established at St Johns Park will provide “intensive parenting support” but will not treat new mothers for acute mental health conditions, parliament has heard.

Labor has branded the change in a “massive broken promise”.

The state and federal governments have jointly pledged $6m for a new four-bed mother-baby unit which will replace the existing three-bed unit at the Royal Hobart Hospital, which the Mercury understands contains two beds.

That RHH unit was set up to provide psychiatric services in the wake of the closure of the eight-bed mental health inpatient Mother-Baby Unit at St Helens Private Hospital in April 2023.

Under the new model being proposed by the government mothers with acute mental health issues will instead be sent to the Mental Health Short Stay Unit or Mental Health Inpatient Unit — without their babies.

Minister Jacquie Petrusma. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

In state parliament on Tuesday, Minister for Health Jacquie Petrusma said the new service “will be more of an intensive parenting support service”.

“The intention of the federal government’s funding is so that we can build a new Mother and Baby Unit at St Johns Park,” she said.

“This will be an overnight service. It will not just be a day service. It will be a specialist intensive parenting support service, for mums and their bubs who have feeding or settling issues, or mum might have some anxiety.

“As soon as it all comes together, I would welcome another question so I can show the plans and talk more about the service.”

The fate of the nursing staff currently working in the current RHH Mother-Baby Unit is unclear.

Ella Haddad Labor member for Clark. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Labor health spokeswoman Ella Haddad accused the government of a “massive broken promise:”.

“CHaPS staff do an amazing job helping new parents in the community, however it is not in their scope of practice to provide a full Mother-Baby Unit model of care service,” she said.

“A Mother-Baby Unit model of care is a specialty service, providing integrated care that focuses on the mental and physical health needs of mothers and their babies.

“There are countless numbers of women who say their stay at a mother baby unit saved their life.

“The Minister confirmed today that mothers with mental health concerns would be sent by the new CHaPS service to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

“This would see new mums either in the general hospital or the psychiatric ward, without their baby with them and not receiving the care they need – an integrated Mother-Baby Unit service – when they need it most.

“Given this, it is completely disingenuous for the Liberals to maintain that what they are proposing at St John’s Park is a Mother-Baby Unit at all.”

Originally published as Mother-baby unit branded broken promise, Labor says