'Band aid solutions' for maternity and newborn services as new hospital progresses

Health Minister Meredith Hammat has today announced changes to governance arrangements to bring women, children and newborn health under the same service coordination to address long held concerns about the separation of the new hospital from Perth Children's Hospital

Other measures include an expansion of newborn transfer services and upgrades at Perth’s flagship major tertiary hospital to increase paediatric expertise.

For years doctors have warned the decision to build the new maternity hospital one the Fiona Stanley Hospital site in Murdoch, rather than at the QEII site in Nedlands alongside both Perth Children’s Hospital and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, posed an unacceptable risk of death and disability to newborns because babies requiring emergency surgeries would have to be transferred 20km.

Despite concerns, construction on the 247 bed maternity hospital to replace King Edward Memorial Hospital began in October last year.

Now Ms Hammat, alongside Health Infrastructure Minister Jon Carey, announced upgrades to the initial plan for newborn services to address some of the safety concerns raised by the AMA (WA) and other health bodies.

“A new dedicated health service provider will provide enhanced coordination and oversight, and support continuity of care for families from pregnancy, to birth and the childhood years,” Ms Hammat said.

“We’re also further bolstering our public health resources by exploring new models of care at Perth Children’s Hospital, strengthening our Newborn Emergency Transport Service, and upgrading paediatric services at Fiona Stanley Hospital."

A dedicated Newborn Emergency Transfer Service (NETS) hub will be established at the Women and Babies Hospital, alongside a small expansion of the existing NETS service at PCH.

NETS operates a mobile intensive care unit which transfers about 1100 sick newborns and young infants each year from their birth hospital to another hospital for urgent care.

Additionally, paediatric capability at Fiona Stanley Hospital will be enhanced to support integrated care with the Women and Babies Hospital and to increase the number of paediatric specialists available in Perth’s south and east.

But AMA (WA) President Dr Kyle Hoath said while the solutions offered today were welcome within context of the current plans, he described them as "band aid solutions".

He doubled down on the position that building the hospital in Murdoch was the wrong decision in the first place.

"We are incredibly disappointed to see that the recommendations from the government's own report around supporting tri-location - around having the ability for mothers to deliver babies at the QEII site - has been effectively completely ignored and put in the too hard basket," he said.

"That for us remains unacceptable because we have mothers and families north of the river in the inner city regions, thousands of births a year, which will now have to either face travel down to the southern corridor to access women and newborn services, or parents being displaced and not near their children, perhaps because they need to be transferred to PCH for for emergency care.

"It gets back to that issue we've highlighted all along: that having these services separated makes no sense.

"What would be considered world class would be tri-location, and that's not what we have now, we now have separation of our women and our paediatric hospitals by a 20 minute drive. It makes no sense, tri-location is the only way to deliver these services."

Dr Hoath said given the new hospital build was progressing, one option could be to have a smaller women's and children's hospital built at the Nedlands site as well to cater to families further from the southern corridor of Perth.