This hospital will soon have 12 births a day. Women in labour may be raced down a highway

Women in labour expecting to give birth at Gosford could be loaded into ambulances and raced down the M1 motorway to Sydney from Monday if the Central Coast hospital cannot find a solution to a critical staffing shortage.

In an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday night, Gosford Hospital’s executive told the Staff Medical Council that its obstetrics and gynaecology services were at risk of going on bypass if they could not find a solution to a senior specialist shortage that made it impossible to supervise obstetrics trainees safely.

If the impasse cannot be resolved by Monday, Gosford Hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology services risk going on bypass.

A bypass would mean birthing women and other obstetrics and gynaecology patients would be diverted to hospitals in Sydney and Newcastle, more than an hour away.

The news will come as a devastating blow to women on the Central Coast who learnt in September that Gosford Hospital’s gynaecologists had cancelled all non-urgent cases and could only treat urgent and life-threatening conditions due to staff shortages and patient safety risks.

Gosford’s public hospital will be the only maternity service for a region spanning 1680 square kilometres and with a population of more than 350,000 when Gosford Private’s maternity unit closes in March 2025. Wyong Hospital’s new maternity unit has remained closed due to insufficient staffing.

Obstetrics and gynaecology registrars run public hospital services under the supervision of senior specialists. The local medical community is worried that if the registrars – deeply concerned about their lack of supervision and support – do not arrive for their shifts on Monday, the department will go on bypass.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which accredits hospitals to train obstetrics registrars, said the college is actively working with Gosford Hospital and NSW Health to come up with solutions.

With more than 3700 babies born at Gosford Hospital over the year, and the additional 465 when the private hospital closes – almost 12 births a day on average – doctors say the closest maternity services (Hornsby, Northern Beaches and Royal North Shore hospitals in Sydney, and John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle) may not have the capacity to care for the displaced patients.

A spokesman for Health Minister Ryan Park said the Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) “are consulting with clinicians and RANZCOG on solutions to avoid a bypass of maternity services at Gosford Hospital.”

CCLHD acting chief executive Jude Constable acknowledged the concerns, saying they were working to minimise potential disruption and reassured women there would be high-quality care at the hospital.

“Women will be contacted if there are any changes to their existing planned location of birth and should continue to present to Gosford Hospital unless otherwise advised,” Constable said.

Gosford GP Georgia Page said a bypass could be catastrophic for mothers and babies.

“My second baby was born in 40 minutes with his cord wrapped around his neck three times. What would have happened if I was stuck on the freeway?” Page said.

“When it was announced that Gosford Private was closing its maternity services, [NSW Health] said that the public hospital would absorb the extra 465 births per year, but as we see now, they’re not surviving themselves because of the short-staffing issues.”

On the cancellation of non-urgent gynaecology services, Page said: “For patients with heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, abnormal cervical screening tests, an appointment at the public gynaecology clinic cannot be guaranteed, so they’re sitting and waiting with anxiety, uncertainty, often in pain.”

The closure of Gosford Private Hospital’s maternity services will further frustrate attempts to recruit senior obstetricians and gynaecologists to work on the Central Coast, who often work across private and public services.

Nurse Craig Gross on Thursday told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into health reform in rural and regional communities there were wonderful obstetricians and gynaecologists at Gosford, but they were at risk of walking away because of “intolerable conditions”.

“That’s going to also push our midwives to walk away as well, and our midwives are beside themselves because they are so overworked because of the lack of resources because of the lack of funding,” said Gross, a representative of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association.

Jane Bulter, a medical negligence lawyer who represents women with birth trauma injury, said she was concerned the Central Coast was facing a crisis in maternity services provision, months after the NSW Health Minister Ryan Park apologised to women who were failed by the state’s maternity services following the birth trauma inquiry.

“The reason we had a birth trauma inquiry in NSW was because women are being injured while they give birth,” Bulter said.

“I had hoped after the birth trauma inquiry that the recommendations would be followed and that women’s maternity services would improve, but it seems for the women of the Central Coast, the opposite is true,” she said.

Lucy Wicks, the Liberal Party candidate for the Central Coast electorate of Robertson, said she had been hearing the growing concerns from nurses, doctors and community members about the contraction of obstetrics and gynaecology services on the Central Coast.

“I would not have made it down to Sydney or up to Newcastle with the birth of my second daughter,” said Wicks, whose labour was two hours.

“It is imperative that women on the Central Coast have access to great-quality birthing services every day of the year … Labor needs to fix this for women on the Central Coast,” Wicks said.

Women can contact the birthing unit on 4320 3440.

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