Djerriwarrh Health Services says it’s confident risks posed to its maternity services patients have been lessened by working closely with their general practitioners in the wake of the baby death scandal.
At its annual general meeting, service obstetrics director Nisha Khot said the Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital had developed a comprehensive framework, which had been distributed to GPs.
Ms Khot said this was essential in ensuring patients, local doctors and midwives were aware of the services the hospital was capable of providing.
“Prior to this year, we didn’t have a capability framework and there wasn’t a clear-cut ‘this is what we do and this is what we don’t do’,” Ms Khot said. “But now, we’re doing what we’re capable of instead of doing something that is clearly out of our scope, which makes it dangerous for women, babies and staff.”
An investigation commissioned by the health department, and led by Professor Euan Wallace, found there were 11 potentially avoidable infant deaths between 2001 and 2014 at the hospital, while some high-risk mothers and babies had not been transferred to larger hospitals.
Ms Khot said staff felt “overwhelmed” when confronted with high-risk pregnancies they were not equipped to deal with and that mothers deserved to be provided with a safe service.
She said part of the problem at the hospital, and across the country, were hospitals’ failures to identify what they were capable of doing.
She said there had been a drop in the numbers of women using the hospital to give birth to their babies.
“That can be attributed to women being reluctant to come to us given the publicity, but part of that has been because we’ve been telling women they’re better off going to another hospital,” Ms Khot said.
“It’s possible, going into the future, that we’ll be able to see more and more women … but women come to us with the impression we’re providing them with a safe service, and if we can’t provide it we have to be honest.”
The state government recently announced $10 million in funding to upgrade health services at the Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital, including expanding the maternity unit.
