‘Deadly’ Perth babies’ hospital move sets top doctors on collision course with minister

Senior staff within the West Australian government’s own child health service believe the Cook cabinet’s shock decision to relocate Perth’s new $1.8 billion maternity hospital to Murdoch instead of next to Perth Children’s Hospital would represent an “unacceptable risk” of death and disability in newborn babies.

Nine News Perth has obtained a draft position paper authored by the Child and Adolescent Health Service – the government agency that runs Perth Children’s Hospital – which comprehensively rejects a decision made in secret six months ago by then-premier Mark McGowan and Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson to move the facility 20 kilometres away.

During the announcement to shift the facility, Sanderson argued building on the Queen Elizabeth II site alongside the children’s hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital would take 20 years to complete, cost an additional $229 million, and disrupt the adult hospital’s operations.

The controversial April announcement drew criticism from individuals within the state’s medical fraternity. Now opposition to the move has expanded to include the agency responsible for neonatal care.

The leaked report – whose contributors include directors and co-directors of Perth Children’s Hospital and neonatology, heads of department, consultants, clinicians, clinical planners and data analysts – said emergency transfers of fragile babies by road rather than down a corridor would increase the risk of a tragedy.

“The depth of concern by senior clinical experts remains significant and should not be dismissed as a ‘few unhappy doctors’,” wrote Dr Elizabeth Croston, a paediatric intensive care physician at the children’s hospital and chair of the health service’s clinical staff association.

CAHS chief executive Valerie Jovanovic has distanced herself from the draft report.

“This document is not endorsed by the Child and Adolescent Health Service executive or board,” she said.

“CAHS understands the decision to relocate the project to the Fiona Stanley Hospital precinct, given the myriad of risks outlined in the business case.

“We continue to work with the state government and the project team, who are consulting with clinicians, including at CAHS, to understand and address their concerns around neonates who require urgent surgery following birth.”

The report puts some of WA’s top doctors on a collision course with Sanderson, who previously vehemently defended the decision to swap the build site from Nedlands to Murdoch, despite not consulting medical experts.

The leaked draft shows WA is the only state or territory in Australia where women’s, children’s and adult tertiary hospitals are not tri-located, and quotes international research highlighting the value of co-location.

“The research is clear, neonatal transfer is associated with increased mortality and lasting developmental impairment,” the paper said.

It said the current plan would pose “unacceptable clinical risks” to women and babies, particularly newborns.

“CAHS is sounding the alarm and raising a red flag of this extreme risk,” it said.

“The only mitigation of this risk is tri-location.

“Transport poses a significant risk of morbidity and mortality for critically unwell neonates.

“These neonates are fragile and corridor transfer minimises the risk of destabilisation.”

The report made seven recommendations, all of which cautioned against building the new hospital away from the children’s hospital.

The government’s decision to abandon the original co-location plan for the new hospital, and locate it instead 20 kilometres away in Murdoch, was made on the back of a 181-page business case.

Sanderson has previously said the difficulties of building the hospital near PCH would cause “insurmountable” operational issues at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and be “irresponsible” to approve.

Sanderson conceded the decision was ultimately an infrastructure one but downplayed concerns about the number of newborns requiring immediate surgery after birth.

The position paper states Perth Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in the state with a concentration of specialty medical staff that sick babies require and these cannot be duplicated or extended to the Murdoch hospital precinct, which is where the government intends to build the new birthing hospital.

On Tuesday, Sanderson said pushing ahead with the QEII Medical Centre site would have been irresponsible and resulted in decade of disruption to patients PCH and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

“We are continuing to consult with clinicians about what services for women and their babies will look like in the future, but no amount of consultation would have changed this responsible decision which had to be made,” she said.

“Patient safety is always the priority and as a government we must consider the needs of all patients.”

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