Page 1636 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 9 May 2018
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I regularly do hear wonderful stories about the services at Centenary and about its skilled, caring and professional staff. I am sure that those opposite would agree that the majority of feedback they receive about the hospital from our community is positive.
As I said yesterday, the recent anonymous letter from staff concerned me greatly. As soon as I received it I asked ACT Health to urgently follow up on the issues and claims it raised. ACT Health’s executive management held well-attended, open maternity staff forums, followed up in writing to staff. I visited the maternity ward at the hospital that week to touch base with staff and hear their concerns.
I have responded to the letter and I now table the original correspondence. I present the following paper:
Centenary Hospital for Women and Children—Maternity services—Copy of letter to Andrew Brown, The Canberra Times, from Concerned staff members, Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, The Canberra Hospital, dated 15 April 2018.
I propose to update the Assembly in August this year about the future planning for public maternity services in the ACT.
All staff at Centenary hospital work hard. They do a wonderful job caring for families during one of the most significant times of their lives. It is a popular facility. An increasing number of families are choosing to birth there. As I mentioned yesterday, demand management strategies are in place to address the additional pressure this places on staff, such as a maternity escalation policy that uses the birth centre for patient overflow, extended hours for the maternity assessment unit, rostering additional doctors and midwives, and a midwifery attraction and retention strategy. The graduate midwifery program recruited 15 new staff this year, a 50 per cent increase since 2017.
The government has also committed to a $70 million expansion of the hospital to deliver new and increased services for women, children and adolescents requiring inpatient care across a number of disciplines as well as a number of specialist outpatient services for women and children.
In addition the government has recently funded a $2.6 million refurbishment of the maternity ward at Calvary Public Hospital, Bruce and I look forward to this project being completed in July. It will see Calvary offer a combination of 10 single rooms with ensuites and four large two-bed rooms with bathrooms.
We certainly want to encourage more women, particularly those expecting a lower risk birth and who live on the north side, to consider Calvary. ACT Health and Calvary are working together to implement a new, territory-wide approach to better manage maternity demands with a right care at the right place policy.
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