Page 3595 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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In relation to some of the extra resources that are going into the unit, extra doctors have been and are being appointed. That includes senior doctors, but it also includes extra registrar positions.
For women who want to birth on the community midwives program model, which is basically continuity of care with a midwife, the current constraints of the birth centre mean that we cannot expand that service as rapidly as we would like, and certainly not as rapidly as the feedback we get from women who would like access to that program would indicate. That really is around the fact that the three birthing units within the birth centre are accommodating as many women as they can, although that will change with the new women’s and children’s hospital. The idea of having the extra midwives that are being employed, being recruited, is to have that continuity of care provided as part of the delivery suite. Women who do not get on the community midwives program but who are still coming through the hospital as a public patient will have access to team-based midwife care with continuity of that midwife support.
That is certainly in all the feedback I get from women who are using the service. That is what they are after. And having gone through the service three times myself, and not had continuity of care, it is something that I think I would have benefited from as well. It can be difficult to achieve in a shift-pattern hospital where nurses and midwives work particular shifts. The model of care that is being developed for the new women’s and children’s hospital is very much around continuity of care being led by midwives.
In relation to the Greens’ amendment, the government will support this amendment. We have already acted on and are seeking to improve our management of bullying and harassment across ACT Health workplaces. The Work Safety Commissioner has already done a fair bit of work across this and developed resources and training. Those resources are across ACT government workplaces, not just ACT Health, but I accept that we need to do more to get the message out around our processes and how people can contribute. There is more to be done in this area. We will work with the Work Safety Commissioner, through ACT Health, to improve our processes there.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (8.55): I rise tonight in support of Mr Hanson’s motion, which calls on the minister to:
… apologise in writing to all obstetrics staff employed at TCH in the last three years for her and ACT Health’s failure to adequately address their concerns and for her ongoing attacks on their credibility …
As Mr Hanson stated, in February this year a number of obstetricians came forward and made a series of allegations about patient safety and the dysfunctional workplace within the obstetrics department of the Canberra Hospital. Their concerns related to the safety of patients and raised the very strong fear that such a dysfunctional workplace could lead to serious injury and perhaps even death. Furthermore, there were allegations of a toxic workplace culture and of complaints being ignored.
The frustrations of these valued professionals about the lack of actions regarding their complaints led to nine obstetricians leaving the Canberra Hospital. Nine much-needed
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