Page 2422 - Week 09 - Thursday, 17 September 1992
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Birthing Centre
MRS GRASSBY: My question is directed to the Minister for Health. In a report in the Canberra Times on 14 September quoting from the Australian Medical Association publication, a Canberra doctor claimed that the birthing centre services are provided at the expense of other maternity services such as the labour ward. Is this true?
MR BERRY: I opened the birthing centre early this year. The number of deliveries at the birthing centre has fluctuated from seven in January to 18 in July. This compares with the numbers of confinements in the delivery suite, ranging from 250 in April to 311 in January. The Canberra Times report was meant to give the impression that the birthing centre staff are underutilised. This is simply not true. In fact, when workloads in the birthing centre permit, staff are deployed to the delivery suite or to other areas of the hospital. The centre provides antenatal care and parent education. Antenatal care occasions of service increased steadily, from 22 in January to 134 in July. Parent education classes have more than doubled, from 22 in January to 48 in August.
The article inaccurately reported that the average length of stay was three days. The average length of stay for April, the most recent figure available, was 5.085 days. Members may be aware that the basis of the birthing centre's length of stay is one day. The length of stay figure raises an interesting issue for the ACT. I refer to the attitude of some to the birthing centre. The centre has attracted criticism from obstetricians. Only one obstetrician makes regular use of the birthing centre. There are, however, 10 general practitioner obstetricians who regularly attend deliveries at the centre.
When we look at the factors that contribute to the average length of stay, it is difficult to ignore the rate of caesarean sections, which is very high for the ACT. According to the latest Australia's Health 1992, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, some 26.3 caesarean sections per hundred live births are recorded for the ACT, compared with a figure of 16.9 across Australia. No other State reports a figure as high as the ACT's. I am proud of the birthing centre because I believe that it provides a valuable service to the women of Canberra.
Mr De Domenico: Madam Speaker, I ask the Minister to table that document. He read it so fast that I did not hear what the answer was.
MADAM SPEAKER: It will be in Hansard. It being 3.00 pm, pursuant to the resolution of the Assembly of 15 September 1992, I call on executive business.
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