Page 208 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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“That’s a great model and it would be good if everyone did that. The problem is that they have not taken into consideration that that sort of model only works if you’re under 35, if you’re a normal weight and you have a normal pregnancy,” he said.
“And unfortunately in Canberra there a number of people who are not under 35, who are not normal weight, who do have medical conditions and don’t have a normal birth.”
Let me repeat what Dr Foote from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said:
… our concern, that patient safety is compromised.
When it comes to patient safety, we already know that there were two events where patient safety was compromised. I read again from the Canberra Times:
A baby was lucky to escape injury after a wooden panel dropped from a wall onto a cot in the new Centenary Hospital for Women and Children. Staff have raised safety concerns about the new hospital after the accident on Wednesday night and several other incidents.
They included a communications failure which resulted in neonatal staff failing to receive an urgent ‘code blue’ call for assistance with a critically ill baby in an operating theatre.
At the time I said of these two near tragic events that it appears that the hospital had been opened before it was ready and safety was compromised. The question is: was there any pressure from the government or anyone else to get the hospital open before it was safe to do so? Will those sorts of questions be asked in the government’s review? I doubt that very much. I think they are questions that need to be answered.
In terms of my motion and what I am calling for, we need these answers. We know that this government and this minister have a track record when it comes to covering up problems in obstetrics and maternity. You will recall that in 2010 we saw dysfunction and bulling that led to the resignation of 13 doctors. The minister said, “That’s just doctor politics and it’s mud-slinging.” But two reviews were conducted. She has buried one, cleverly doing it under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The other one, which was forced on her by the opposition, noted a number of things. Let me quote from that investigation:
There is evidence of systemic reticence to address staff performance issues … The clinical governance at the Canberra Hospital maternity unit appears to be inadequate … There was an apparent lack of cohesion amongst the executive team at the Canberra Hospital … There appears to be considerable confusion over the role and delineation of some senior management positions … It appears that the chain of command often fails …
The problems seem to be going on, but will we find out? If we do not make sure that the terms of reference are adequate and comprehensive and that the review is
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