WA Health Minister won’t guarantee statewide ambulance transfers for mums in labour after freeway birth

Health Minister Meredith Hammat won’t guarantee that pregnant mothers in labour turned away from WA hospitals will be examined first and have ambulance transfers. The key recommendations were made after Perth mother, Lena, was forced to deliver her baby in the back seat of her car on the freeway in November, when she couldn’t get a bed in the maternity unit at St John of God Midland Public Hospital. A Severity Assessment Code 1 (SAC1) report found that Lena wasn’t examined after her four hour wait, or provided an ambulance transfer as would be expected, but it said: “The current policies and procedures do not outline this requirement.” It recommended the policies and procedures be updated, but the Health Minister wouldn’t guarantee that this will occur at all hospitals when asked on Tuesday. “My expectation is those recommendations will be implemented in full,” Ms Hammat said. When asked whether it was common sense that mother’s in labour should be examined and transferred to another hospital via ambulance Ms Hammat said: “I think there’s some learnings(sic) in the case study that we’ve seen”. The Health Minister later clarified that the recommendations would be implemented by St John of God Midland but wouldn’t commit to ensuring all hospitals implement the recommendations. “The hospital is required to provide a progress report on the implementation to the Department of Health within six months,” she said. State Secretary of Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation WA Romina Raschilla raised concerns about midwife to patient ratios across the health system. “A midwife could have a ratio of five patients, but those patients would be the mothers and not include their babies — we’re not counting the babies in our ratios in WA, so in fact midwives are caring for 10 patients instead of five in maternity wards,” she said. “It’s not sustainable, the quality of care and the patient experience is affected. “Counting babies in ratios staffing will improve wellbeing, mean less burnout, will lower stress and support staff retention. We need to ensure midwives want to stay employed within WA Health, because currently we are facing a shortage, and also have greater ability to implement best practice interventions.” Ms Raschilla acknowledged that recent efforts to bolster ratios in intensive care units, coronary care units and neonatal intensive care units was a step in the right direction, but that the next phase needed to come sooner rather than later. “There is a urgent need for ratios to be rolled out in regional and remote communities across WA Country Health Service to support nurses, midwives and the community in these areas.” Shadow Health Minister Libby Mettam described the case involving the freeway birth as “damning”. “The SAC 1 report is another damning account of appalling level of patient care and a hospital struggling to cope with demand under the Cook Labor Government,” she said. Last week, Minister Hammat said the government was “committed” to improving nurse and midwife-to-patient ratios. She said the latest rollout of better ratios was last week. But Ms Mettam described that statement as an “empty boast” considering the health system was still “struggling to fulfil the current rosters and regular bypasses due to capacity issues”.