By Michael Genovese and Hamish Hastie
Moving the new $1.8 billion women’s and babies’ hospital to Murdoch will increase the risk of death and disability for the state’s most at-risk newborns, the former WA neonatal intensive care boss has warned.
After running WA’s major neonatal ICUs and emergency baby transfers for nearly two decades UWA Professor Karen Simmer knows the level of care some babies require. She said the government’s decision to take the hospital from the QEII medical precinct where the Perth Children’s Hospital is located, 20 kilometres south to Fiona Stanley Hospital was dangerous and urged the government to reverse the decision.
King Edward Memorial Hospital.
“Twenty kilometres for the mothers, for the greatly sick babies, is a long way on the freeway, especially in peak hour traffic,” the former neonatal ICU and newborn emergency transport services director at King Edward and Perth Children’s Hospital said.
“The point of the uproar from me and senior clinicians is if King Edward were to be moved to Fiona Stanley Hospital, the risk of death and disability for the very small children that we care for will be increased, and their families need to be aware of this.”
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.Credit: Peter de Kruijff
Simmer’s concerns add to the growing chorus from doctors, including the head of the Australian Medical Association WA Mark Duncan-Smith.
Simmer told Nine News Perth preterm babies in ICU in the new hospital in Murdoch needing lifesaving surgery or cardiac intensive care would need to be transferred via ambulance on a ventilator or using multiple infusions up the freeway back to Perth Children’s Hospital.
She said once their surgery or care was over the babies would then be transferred back.
“If it was co-located this could just be done through a tunnel or a footpath connecting the two hospitals,” she said.
“[People] need to be aware that these aren’t just babies in a little cot next to their mother having tube feeding, these are intensive care patients on life support, often needing surgery, even open-heart surgery.
“These are real inpatients and there’s 100 of them at King Edward and 2000 patients over the last 10 years have needed transfer to the children’s hospital for life-saving measures.”
More than two years ago Premier Mark McGowan announced the government would build a new women’s and babies hospital on the QEII medical precinct site in Nedlands to replace the ageing King Edward hospital.
On April 11 the premier and Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson announced a change of location for the new hospital to next to Fiona Stanley Hospital to avoid disruptions at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and to speed up the build.
Simmer said most senior clinicians were concerned about the move, but many could not speak up over fears of backlash from the government.
“Many of the senior clinicians are not politically in a position where they can speak to the media, but they all feel exactly like this: outraged, disappointed, shocked and desperate to find a way how we can reverse this decision because it blindsided everyone,” she said.
Simmer also levelled a scathing assessment of the lack of consultation with clinical staff.
She said, to her knowledge, clinical staff at QEII hospitals were not aware of the decision until shortly before it was announced.
“In my 20 years with the health department, I have never seen a decision like this made, clinicians have always been involved in any change management,” she said.
Sanderson said senior health department officials and senior health service providers were part of the process but ultimately the location of the hospital was a decision for the government.
“We made that decision based on what were insurmountable challenges with building the hospital at QEII,” she said.
“Ideally, in an ideal world, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t split them and we would build the hospital at QEII but there are too many risks associated with building the hospital at QEII and have far too much disruption on the site for the existing tertiary hospitals that are there.”
Sanderson said the government already has a specialised neonatal transfer unit already and her government would work with neonatologists on the best outcome for babies.
Responding to an opinion piece by Duncan-Smith published this week sharing concerns that babies may die as a result of the hospital move Sanderson warned against using inflammatory language in the debate.
“I think we all have to be very cautious about the language that we use and if we’re going to have a constructive and useful debate, that we do it sensibly,” she said.
“I can guarantee the government will put everything in place that it needs to make sure that it is safe for every baby birthed in Western Australia.”
On Tuesday Sanderson also announced $75 million of extra funding from the upcoming state budget for initiatives to improve the state’s emergency department patient flow.
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