Families have been devastated by the decision to close the Central Coast’s only private maternity unit amid a staffing crisis in the region’s public obstetrics services and the collapse of private birthing hospitals nationally.
On Wednesday, private hospital operator Healthe Care announced it would close Gosford Private Hospital’s maternity services on March 31, leaving the public Gosford Hospital as the only birthing unit for a region spanning 1680 square kilometres and with a population of more than 350,000.
One of Gosford Private Hospital’s luxury birthing suites. Credit: Gosford Private Hospital, Facebook
The closure will disrupt the plans of pregnant women in their first and early second trimesters who had already booked in to give birth at the service after this date.
It is less than four years since Gosford Private opened a new luxury maternity ward, which featured immersion baths, monsoon showers, and dedicated partner accommodation as part of its $32 million expansion.
Healthe Care said the decision was driven by declining birth rates, decreased demand for private maternity services, increasing cost-of-living pressures, and challenges with private health insurance funding for private hospitals. The operator also closed its Tuggerah Lakes Private Hospital in November 2023.
Obstetricians and midwives have warned that public hospitals can’t absorb the 500 babies born at private hospitals yearly, which would amount to a 20 per cent increase in demand for their already overstretched services.
Only two of the six obstetricians at the private hospital can deliver babies for privately insured mothers in the public hospital.
Meanwhile, the Central Coast’s public hospital Obstetricians and gynaecologists in the area cancelled all non-urgent appointments last month, vowing to treat only urgent and life-threatening cases until the local health district hired more doctors due to concerns about patient safety.
Jane Bulter, a medical negligence lawyer who represents women with birth trauma injury, said local families are “absolutely devastated” by the closure.
“To see a cut in maternity services is a real shame after we’ve just had all this attention on birth trauma and the need for better services,” she said, referring to NSW’s birth trauma inquiry.
“I am very concerned that there will be fewer services and fewer choices for women on the Central Coast.”
A Change.org petition to stop the closure attracted over 1000 signatures on Wednesday.
Gosford is the eighth Australian private maternity service to close in 18 months.
Obstetricians and hospital operators have warned that Australia’s private maternity hospital sector faces wholesale collapse without major reforms to combat the soaring costs of running the services and the shrinking pool of women who are willing to pay increasing out-of-pocket costs and rising private health insurance payments.
In a statement, Healthe Care said it was working with Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) to ensure ongoing access to maternity services.
The operator said it was exploring redeployment opportunities for the 27 staff affected.
In a statement, the CCLHD said women impacted by the closure can access high-quality care at Gosford Hospital and had undertaken a successful recruitment campaign to fill vacant positions.
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