Page 2211 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 31 October 1989
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to that service was a very important one for those clients of the hospital service. But I think the most important one, and the one that will be open to most people is the issue of the obstetrics early discharge program.
Yesterday I announced the commencement of what is described in the ACT as the mid-call program, where early discharge from hospital, after one or two days, will be available to women following a normal birth. It has been shown in many countries, and now in Australia, to be viable and a preferred alternative for some mothers to the traditional stay in hospital of between five and seven days. I am sure that some of us can remember when 10 days was a common stay in hospital for at least the first birth. I recall that in relation to my own children.
It is considered that up to 20 per cent of mothers may participate in such a scheme in the two major ACT public hospitals. At risk mothers will be identified through screening and will be excluded from the program, and participating mothers are prepared in that program for early discharge through an antenatal education and counselling process. But the most important feature of the program is that women who decide that they do not wish to leave hospital will not be forced to do so - it is a matter of choice - and they will be able to stay in the hospital system for the traditional length of stay if that is what they choose to do.
Each hospital will be staffed by an antenatal midwife coordinator-educator and the equivalent of one full-time midwife seven days a week. Early discharge mothers and their babies are visited at their homes by midwives from discharge day until about the seventh day following birth. So there is security in this system for mothers who choose to go home early. One of the requirements is that they have adult support at home when they choose to take early discharge. But after the early discharge program has concluded on about the seventh day, care is transferred to the regular community nursing service.
It is expected that in the ACT there will be 2,600 fewer bed days as a result of the program and there will be recurrent annual savings of around $135,000. But the most important issue is that it increases the options for women and ensures that they can exercise an option other than the traditional stay in ACT hospitals. I think that will be welcomed by the community at large.
The Medicare incentive program is a very important program for the provision of health services in the ACT and I think speakers in this debate have generally endorsed the program. I conclude by welcoming the complimentary comments of Assembly colleagues who supported the Medicare incentive program.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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