Page 1526 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 8 May 2018
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I am happy to say that the majority of feedback I get about Centenary is how wonderful the staff are and how great the service was. It is an incredibly popular facility, with an increasing number of families choosing to birth at the hospital. I am very aware of the pressure this is placing on staff who do a wonderful job caring for families during one of the most significant times in their lives.
The recent anonymous letter from a staff member concerned me greatly and while a number of the issues raised were in relation to how busy it is at Centenary hospital, I am advised that other issues raised were not accurate, particularly regarding accreditation, and I know senior staff and doctors at Centenary have been eager to reassure the community that the hospital is safe and offers high quality care. Indeed the management team is committed to working through the issues staff may raise in a respectful and supportive way. Once the letter was received a number of staff forums were held to talk openly with staff about these issues because we know that all staff have the best interests of their patients at heart.
To be clear, Centenary currently uses a number of strategies to address high demand, including a maternity escalation policy so that patient urgency is managed, using the birth centre for patient overflow, extending the hours of the maternity assessment unit, rostering additional doctors and midwives and introducing assistants in midwifery to support the midwives providing maternity services, and a midwifery attraction and retention strategy to strengthen staffing numbers.
The recruitment of midwives and medical staff is an ongoing challenge that ACT Health has addressed with strategies to attract new staff and support existing staff so that they can continue to work at Centenary doing what they love. The graduate midwifery program recruited 15 new staff in 2018, a 50 per cent increase from the 2017 intake. The ACT government has also made a commitment to expand services at Centenary and planning and feasibility work is well underway. In addition planning for the $70 million expansion has begun this financial year to enable Centenary to grow its footprint. In addition the ACT government has recently funded a $2.6 million refurbishment of the maternity ward at Calvary Public Hospital so that women have a more comfortable place to birth and spend those precious first few hours and days with their baby.
Both Centenary hospital and Calvary Public Hospital offer different choices of birthing for pregnant women. Both offer high quality care by dedicated professionals. However, what we have seen in recent years is a steady increase at Centenary and a steady decline at Calvary. As health minister it is simply not tenable to have valuable health experience not being properly utilised at Calvary Public Hospital. This is exactly why we are investing in the maternity ward and look forward to that work being completed in July. Work is also underway to improve the way maternity services are offered right across our community and I expect further advice on that from ACT Health in the near future.
I want to address the issue of waiting times in emergency and elective surgery. Of course, ACT Health is committed to bringing down wait times and this has been a challenge for some time in the ACT. Canberra Hospital is one of the top 10 busiest
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