Page 4047 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 30 November 2022
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environment rather than being moved into a birth suite, unless that is absolutely necessary, or unless they need to go into theatre.
The birth centre is not a model of care, so I cannot give you a waitlist for the birth centre, because it does not have a waitlist, as it is a physical location. I can tell you, in terms of the waiting list for continuity of care, that there are approximately 350 women on the waitlist for continuity of care models, ranging from six to 36 weeks pregnant. Approximately 30 to 40 women per month indicate a preference for continuity and are not able to access this choice, at least up-front. Once the allocation of places on the continuity model has been exhausted, women do remain on the waitlist until they are 36 weeks pregnant. The digital health record is giving the team better visibility of those people who are on that waitlist.
MS CLAY: Minister, are all five of those birth centre rooms available for births and being used for births at the moment?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: That is my understanding, but I will seek some further information from Canberra Health Services and come back to the Assembly—fingers crossed, at the end of question time.
MR BRADDOCK: Minister, knowing that midwifery-led continuity of care is best practice, what percentage of ACT women currently access a midwifery-led continuity of care model?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Mr Braddock for the supplementary. I think I provided this information in my response last week to Ms Clay’s question. The answer is that, in the ACT, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report Maternity models of care in Australia, 2022, the ACT provides whole duration of maternity period continuity in 38.1 per cent of pregnancies, which is the third highest in the country, and well above the national average of 31 per cent. Of course, the ACT government is committed, through the Maternity in Focus strategy, to more than 50 per cent of women and pregnant people having access to this model of care
by 2028.
Dhulwa Mental Health Unit—patient transfers
MR COCKS: Madam Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Justice Health. I refer to concerns raised by the ACT Human Rights Commission, reported in the Canberra Times of 27 November, about the transfer of non-forensic mental health patients to Dhulwa. The Human Rights Commissioner said that transferring these patients “appears to contravene the spirit and objects of the Mental Health Act, insofar as people with a mental disorder or mental illness should receive assessment and treatment, care or support in a way that is least restrictive or intrusive to them”. Minister, had anyone raised concerns with you about people being inappropriately transferred to Dhulwa before that article?
MS DAVIDSON: Thank you for the question. The process for someone being transferred into Dhulwa is something that I have discussed with CHS so that we can better understand how those decisions are made and what processes are in place. That is something that needs to take into account the person’s clinical needs—
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