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Dear Pauline,
Great to hear from you all in Colac.
I am sorry I have not been home (Apollo Bay) since
feb to support you all. Have had a wonderful catch up with Cheryl Cahill
at the Wollongong hospital last year ! It has been truly
frustrating to the extreme what has been happenning in the Otways over the past
few years. As you may know the Colac Families & Babies group have been
fighting hard to keep the issues alive and did a brilliant job of taking it to
the local press over the past few years. We (the Otway Greens candidates) have also raised
and campaigned vigorously for the implementation of localised maternity
services with a known midwife (continuity of carer) to be funded at every state
and federal election over the past five years. Our closest step was the ALP
candidate for Corangamite in the 2001 federal election who gave a 100%
costed committment to this publically ; at a state wide midwives rally (in
reponse to the insurance debacle) held in Geelong during the election
campaign, and throughout the local and state media that played out during the
campaign. It is important to note the ALP commitment was supported
and approved by the prime movers and shakers in the federal ALP (the centre
right) before the party been preferenced ahead of the conservatives. But
of course the reform of maternity services did not get a look in as Stewart
McCarthur was dutifully re-elected by our constituents for his umpteenth term
and the federal government agenda is to close more services in rural and remote
areas to centralise rseources and pump up the already obstetrically
overserviced well women in regional and metro settings. surpise surprise
!
I would suggest that if the midwives were to
support the women (Colac FAB) who have been campaigning (and some needing to
resume other commitments) to reignite the flame and further the issues - you
will be able to get the crucial political and media coverage needed to make a
difference. This is particluarly important as Victorians go to the
polls again in Nov 2006 and a 15 mth campaign could be highly effective. In
addition to the next federal election where Stewart may even consider retirement
which will also pave the way for reform.
We all know there is no evidence to suggest a woman
should be automatically transferred because there is no surgical/obstetric
cover. Unfortunately you only need to check out where the decisions are
being made at Colac Area Health and Otway Health to know that this is not going
to change without some serious input from the state and federal pollies.
I would like to share with you an example of
this:
In Feb this year the women of the Apollo Bay
Families & Babies group (AB-FAB) held a rally outside the hospital (Otway
Health & Community Services). Around 40 women, men and
children (of a total pop 1000) gathered to share their stories and
opposition to the CEO's decision to pull the plug on women having lost the
choice to be able to come back to their local hospital postnatally. So
women are now not able to return to their families in the 4-24 hrs postpartum as
has been the case since the hospital closed their birthing
services.
The CEO Ms Jeanette Grant closed the postnatal
service without any consultation with the community - claiming she had
approached 5 women to come to this arrangement. The rally was sparked in reponse
to the closure ; one that had been concealed from all the women who
attended the rally and for the many women in the Otways unable to (also the
biggest employer in town !) and in response to the unnecassary
debacle that transpired when a woman had given birth at the local hospital (not
allowed to since the late eighties !!) because she did not have time to
travel the usual 1-3 hrs one way to give birth !
The woman was allegedly treated well by the
staff of the service but appaullingly by management who enforced a decision
to still transfer the well woman and her baby at 11.30 at night (2 hrs
postnatally) to Colac hospital 75 kms away from her family. It would
appear the CEO had suddenly closed the postnatal beds at 9.30pm at night !! The
ambos had to come from Geelong (104 kms away- travelling a total of 5 hrs at a
cost to the public purse of $2,500)
This all took place during the peak rush of chrissy
- new year week and the ambos did not know the windy Otway Ranges roads
which the woman expressed to be another aspect of the 'drama that was
imposed upon her'. All in the name of hiding from local women that someone
had birthed there !! The rally and media coverage was brought to the
attention of State Health Minister (Bronwyn Pike) and whilst the
services are yet to be reinstated - we knew the hospital board had to be
subverted as there had been some interesting unfoldments about the boards
handling of the situation which due to the litigious nature of threats made by
the CEO on several occassions to members of staff etc, the AB-FAB group had
no choice but to approach the body the hospital board and CEO are
accountable to - the office of the State health minister.
Not only did the minister's senior advisor agree in
principle to the need to reinstate the service - he also advocated that it
would be feasible to set up a midwife managed birth unit for the Otways.
Of course in response - the CEO proclaimed to the rally attendees it would
NEVER happen - We kindly reminded the CEO she is providing a service
that is accountable to the consumers that use the service and must abide by the
minister's policy of setting up midwife managed birth units in rural Victoria,
which the minister had recently advocated in the Future Directions in Maternity
Services policy document. Yes it will be an ongoing battle to reclaim our
local birthing services - but the women are strong and some of the managerial
players may in fact be out of step with their health department's
directives.
Back to the Colac issue:
If the midwives were able to speak with some of the key women of the Colac Families & Babies group this would be advantageous. I would be happy to link up with you off the list to provide further details for you. For your reference a number of midwives attended the Australian Midwives Insurance Summit on wednesday at Parliament House Canberra. Dr Carmen Lawrence (ALP Jnr Vice President, Immediate past President & previously Federal Health Minister). Carmen recalled her attendance to give the opening keynote address at the "Communities Choices and Challenges" inaugural birth conference held in Colac in 2001. I was able to provide Carmen with an update on the benefits of the day including the actions of those strong women of the Colac Families & Babies group (Colac FAB) post conference. The women of Colac did not like the proposed design of the new maternity unit being built - so they went and had their own plans drawn up with an architect and took them to the hospital board ! And despite various attempts to quash their actions, some of the changes they proposed were implemented. What stood out in the process was the benefit to
them having had access to hearing from the women campaigners and educators at
the conference as being integral to their campaign. I personally do not
know of any other maternity unit in Australia that has been in part designed by
the women who use the service (please let me know if there are any more out
there !).
Good luck with the reclamation and implementation
of midwifery managed services for the women of Colac and the Otways
Pauline. If I can be of any assistance to you (albeit long distance at
present), please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
Sally-Anne (Brown)
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