Page 1357 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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Premature Births
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, yesterday Mrs Carnell asked me a question relating to the practice of sending ACT women in certain circumstances to interstate hospitals to give birth, and I undertook to provide her with an answer. I will begin by clarifying the facts in relation to the incidents Mrs Carnell referred to in her statement regarding the transfer of premature babies interstate last week.
In the first instance, one premature baby of 26 weeks' gestation was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, in the early hours of the morning of 6 May 1993. The mother of this baby was from Goulburn. The second case involved a woman pregnant with twins whose birth was imminent and who was considered to be in a high risk situation. She was also transferred to Sydney on 6 May 1993. It is important to note that at no time was transfer to anywhere other than Sydney contemplated. I am also advised that no woman was put on standby last week to have her baby delivered interstate, as was stated in this question by Mrs Carnell. Transfers such as these are organised through the neonatal emergency transport system. This system exists to provide access to high-level intensive medical care and it is accessed by the Woden Valley Hospital in cases where there is an overload on local facilities or exceptional medical circumstances exist.
The Woden Valley Hospital neonatal intensive care unit is staffed, funded and equipped for four ventilated cots. The transfers I have referred to were necessary because these cots were occupied. These two transfers are the only transfers which have been necessary in 1993. In normal circumstances the existing facilities at Woden Valley Hospital, including the neonatal intensive care unit, more than adequately address the needs of Canberra women. Clearly, Madam Speaker, women do not have to leave the ACT to give birth, except in exceptional cases of medical emergency. I believe that these facts demonstrate the Government's strong commitment to addressing the health needs of all women of the ACT.
Answers to Questions Without Notice
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I have some further answers to questions taken on notice. I have previously supplied these answers to the members asking the questions, but I would ask that they be incorporated in Hansard. The questions were: From Mr Kaine, on 16 February, regarding the effect of introducing a goods and services tax on the ACT, and he will not like that answer; from Mr Kaine again, on 25 February, regarding the contract for the manufacture of an ACT flag; and from Mr Humphries, on 25 February, regarding the staffing of MLAs' offices. I would ask for those answers to be incorporated in Hansard.
Leave granted.
Documents incorporated at Appendices 1, 2 and 3.
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