PREGNANT women are being turned away from the problem-plagued Fiona Stanley Hospital because its maternity section can’t cope with demand.
Hospital management claims it’s due to an “unusually” high number of births in the region but a local MP says health chiefs were warned years ago they weren’t planning for enough births.
Fremantle state Labor MP Simone McGurk pleaded with the government to keep Kaleeya maternity open in East Fremantle, and reserve the new flagship hospital in Murdoch for complicated deliveries that required tertiary care.
Instead, the government closed Kaleeya, which in its last month delivered 108 babies, up from the 95 the same time the previous year.
In Fiona Stanley’s first four months the number of births rose to 155 per month.
Ms McGurk says bypassing—sending expectant mothers to other hospitals—started in the hospital’s first week.
Her predecessor, Adele Carles, had warned health chiefs in 2012 that FSH would be 300 beds short in its first year unless they made changes.
Hospital spokeswoman Gemma O’Loughlin told the Herald the hospital was grappling with a 43.5 per cent increase in births since replacing obstetric services at Kaleeya on December 2. Management had expected a rise in activity and there were still some transitional issues, she said.
“Fiona Stanley Hospital’s maternity service has gone on bypass several times,” Ms O’Loughlin confirmed, labelling it a “standard” practice for dealing with “an unusually high number of obstetric patients”.
She said bypassing was not “a reflection of the commissioning of (our) service” and maintained the maternity section was functioning well.
However, on the online forum Baby Center, a person using the pseudonym Sipsy4 this week posted ”Unfortunately my good friend who gave birth to her little boy a bit over a month ago has nothing at all good to say about Fiona Stanley”.
“She had dramas with admin and midwives. Although she had a feeling she should have changed hospitals, she stuck with them. She ended up having … an emergency c-section.
“She’s now received advice that both her and her six-month old little boy need(s) to be tested for HIV and hepatitis. She is distraught.”
Those comments followed the bombshell revelation the hospital’s surgical equipment was not being properly sterilised, with blood and body tissue found on instruments.
Nurses are now threatening to strike, saying the Serco-run hospital is an unsafe work environment.
The state’s flagship hospital has been plagued by problems since opening: doctors are resigning due to overwork and orderlies have been so slow getting patients to theatre (unions say it’s because Serco doesn’t employ enough of them) that doctors have resorted to collecting them themselves.
by EMMIE DOWLING and STEVE GRANT
