Gladstone Hospital maternity bypass reaches 200 days
A roadside ‘birth centre’ display has been set-up on the side of the Bruce Highway to protest 200 days since the Gladstone Hospital maternity unit was placed under full bypass.
Regional News
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Advocates pushing for the reopening of the Gladstone maternity unit are angry that a meeting with the Health Minister Yvette D’Ath happened via Zoom rather than face-to-face, while the leader of the Opposition arrived in the city on Tuesday morning to mark the maternity unit’s 200th day on bypass.
“We are in no way political. We don’t care what party is in office but on Friday morning we expected to see Yvette D’Ath face-to-face. We didn’t know it was on a computer screen until we arrived at the meeting in Gladstone,” Jemma Manwaring, who runs the advocacy group Save Gladstone Maternity Ward, told The Courier-Mail.
“It took ages for the Health Minister to respond to my request for a meeting but David Crisafulli called me personally and asked what he could do. Within hours it was arranged he would fly up on the 200th day of bypass.”
The mothers’ advocate, along with Alecia Staines from the Maternity Consumer Network say they are disappointed and angry that the Health Minister — “the person who can make a difference” — seems disengaged.
Residents angry over the bypass have gone so far as to set-up a ‘birth centre’ on the side of the Bruce Hwy, near Calliope, to mark the grim milestone.
It follows last week’s intervention by Acting Premier Steven Miles to call an urgent meeting with Health Minister Yvette D’Ath and Queensland Health Director General, Shaun Drummond, to review the handling of the Gladstone bypass to date.
Mr Miles then announced the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service had secured four additional obstetricians to be shared across the region’s hospitals, including Rockhampton, Biloela, and Gladstone by mid-year.
CQHHS chief executive Emma McCahon said the maternity ward would provide 24/7 emergency cover from early February after the health service secured another locum doctor.
Both moves followed sustained national media attention about the prolonged bypass.
Gladstone MP Glenn Butcher said he was “sick to death” of the LNP ‘lying’ to local residents and said the government was executing its safe staged approach to return services.
“They know for a fact there’s a staged approach, so for them to rabble on and lie like Mr Crisafulli did last time saying that once services go on bypass they never come back … we can look at what they did last time they were in government … I know what he would do (now), he would sack them all,” Mr Butcher said.
“We are recruiting heavily to get this service back,” he said.
“It’s not acceptable that we don’t deliver babies in Gladstone, I have two daughters and granddaughters delivered at Gladstone Hospital, I know how much pain the women are going through because it’s not right, we need to fix it and we are.”
“So I say to David Crisafulli, stop carrying on, stop riling people up, get involved and get on-board or get out of the way.”
Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce has called for ‘heads to roll’ as another milestone ticks by for the Gladstone Hospital maternity crisis.
“Heads need to roll over this failure and it starts with the Health Minister, Yvette D’Ath, Member for Gladstone Glenn Butcher and Central Queensland Health and Hospital Service Board chair Paul Bell,” Mr Boyce said.
Mr Boyce also took aim at Gladstone mayor, Matt Burnett, claiming he had been ‘silent’ on the matter.
“However, we have seen almost nothing from the local mayor who seems to be more about protecting the Labor Party rather than fighting for his community,” he said.
Gladstone Mayor, Matt Burnett hit back at Mr Boyce saying he “wouldn’t have a clue” what’s going on in the background and how the council is advocating to improve medical services in the region.
“My first grandchild, who will be a sixth generation Gladstone local, is due in a few weeks,” Mr Burnett said.
“No-one wants to see maternity services back to the level where they should be more than me and my family,” he said.
Local mothers, including Mrs Manwaring, attended the Gladstone maternity ward on Tuesday morning to drop off ‘care packages’ to the midwives to thank them for their tireless work.
Mrs Manwaring said the midwives were so thankful for the community support and gesture of thanks.
“Midwives have said they’ve exhausted all options to express their concerns, without local advocacy they’d be at a standstill,” she said.
“They are genuinely concerned about the funding situation come the middle of the year and without a clear commitment to fund the ward based on 600 births, this concern remains.”
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Originally published as Gladstone Hospital maternity bypass reaches 200 days
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