Page 4930 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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constantly says. Almost immediately, it could not meet demand. Two years later, a senior executive told the media, “The hospital has been designed to manage until the early part of next decade, but if demand increases beyond that we will start planning for an expansion.” So its design allowed for enough capacity, even they believed, for only eight years. The minister was not the minister then and now she has promised an extension. I accept that. But the extension delivery date continues to go out into the future. There is some extra capacity at Calvary, but that may not be of much assistance to pregnant women living in Canberra’s far south or, as I have said, women with a high-risk pregnancy.
High-risk pregnancies are on the rise in the ACT. We have more complicated pregnancies; we have older women having babies; we have more complicated situations; we have a lot more older people who are having babies who are seeking intervention. We had a recent case of a doctor wanting an expectant mother who lived in the far south to be admitted for a caesarean. But that woman was told that she could not get in until a week after her due date. It is not on. On top of that, there are continuing maintenance issues at the hospital. There are staff who do an unbelievable job under these stressful conditions. We had a letter from them to explain what the exact problem is.
Let me give you all a little example of what happens in one hour in a maternity unit. Patient one needs to be prepped for surgery. An IV cannula needs to be put in. Their vein is difficult to find. It takes a couple of people to get the cannula in. The bell rings, “I need my urine output measured.” The bell rings, “My baby needs a tube feed.” Two bells ring at once, “My wound dressing is coming off.” “Can you ask the neonatal doctor if my baby can come home with me?” Patient five needs a trace on her stomach to check the baby’s heartbeat is okay. Patient two’s meds need to come from the hospital pharmacy because they are on medications that are not kept in the ward. Patient five and patient six need observations—blood pressure checking, temperature checking, blood oxygenation.
Then three bells rings at once. “I need pain medication.” A nurse goes to get it. Two nurses come back because a witness is needed for pain medication. “What is your name, date of birth, any allergies?” Watch the patient take the meds. “I need my urine output measured again.” “I need help getting my baby to feed.” The trace has lost the baby’s heartbeat and needs to be repositioned. That is just an hour in one of these wards.
These wards were set up to have three midwives on duty overnight. They often have two and a registered nurse. That is not the same. Those poor midwives are straining under the pressure. The shift for, say, a 17-bed unit overnight is three staff—two midwives and a registered nurse. The staffing should be at least three midwives. That is what the facility was designed to have. That is not what they have now. Sometimes the registered nurse they are given is not even somebody with maternity experience, which means everything that they need to do has to be explained to them and shown to them. Telling us that some things are working in health is not an excuse for the many failings in the women’s and children’s hospital and across ACT Health. (Time expired.)
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