Page 1781 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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Maternity services at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children
Ministerial statement
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Medical and Health Research, Minister for Transport and Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) (10.10): I rise today to provide an update to the Assembly on maternity services at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, as foreshadowed in the last sitting. During the last sitting period, I indicated that I would provide a statement to the Assembly and provide some facts on matters of recent interest, specifically regarding matters that have been raised in some anonymous feedback, reports by the media, and questions raised by staff and those opposite relating to allegations of patient examinations being undertaken without seeking consent appropriately.
I want to make it clear that informed consent is something that Canberra Health Services takes seriously—very seriously. I think it is important to note that there are actually a range of different views within maternity services between obstetricians and midwives here in Canberra, across Australia and across the world when it comes to pregnancy, birth and maternity practices. This is a complex field of clinical care, with a spectrum of models of care and a range of views about what is best for mother and baby. Sometimes this can cause a difference of opinion in the birth suite. However, CHS and the Centenary hospital staff place great importance on patient consent and ensure that all women are well informed regarding their care as best they can.
I want to be clear. Overall, our maternity services are highly valued and there is a high satisfaction rate with our public maternity units in Canberra. Our staff are experienced, they work hard and they have the best interests of their patients at heart. As members are aware, the Standing Committee on Health, Ageing and Community Services is currently undertaking an inquiry into maternity services in the ACT. The committee is accepting submissions up until June 2019, and I welcome this important work being undertaken by the committee.
The inquiry has extensive terms of reference and will look at, among other things, models of care for all maternity services and patient satisfaction. Subsequently, there have been submissions from a variety of stakeholders that contain feedback on their experiences with ACT maternity services, and this is great to see.
A claim that a woman received an examination without her consent is a significant claim. I think it is fair to expect that staff have a duty of care and adherence to their professional obligations to raise such matters, if they are concerned such a thing has occurred, as soon as practicable. Following the publishing of this submission, these claims, which were unsubstantiated at the time, were reported in the media on 11 March.
This was of concern to me. It was also of concern to the CEO of Canberra Health Services and Centenary hospital staff. We were concerned that these unsubstantiated claims were being presented as, or could have been interpreted as, facts in the media.
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