Obstetrician Michael Gannon argues the State Government needs to
get it right when it comes to the new women and babies’ hospital.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disastrous impact on Planet Earth. One of the many benefits of living in the ‘Perth bubble’ during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the opportunity to observe with sheer fascination (and horror) the winners and losers of the pandemic and its massive disruption on society.
Many of us with loved ones overseas have been denied the opportunity to see them or care for them. The hard border closures, the subsequent restrictions on travel, and the permanent threat of yet another snap lockdown have prevented interstate travel for leisure, family reunion and commerce. However, it is undeniable that there have been individuals and industries in this state that have benefited greatly.
Former treasurer Ben Wyatt’s 2019 Budget included a $3.3 million allowance to begin the move of our tertiary women’s hospital to the QEII Campus. Those monies disappeared very quickly and were quarantined as part of the State’s COVID response.
Both official and unofficial communications with members of the McGowan Government suggested that the plans for a new women’s hospital had been shelved. Imagine the delight to those of us working in women’s health when we saw the proposal to spend $1.8 billion announced late last year.
This opportunity must not be squandered. The hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into Treasurer McGowan’s purse, from sources as diverse as iron ore royalties, stamp duty and sales tax, must be used to develop a ‘once in two generation opportunity’ to improve the health of women and their newborns.
As AMA WA President, I was critical of the Barnett Government’s failure to ‘future proof’ the new Perth Children’s Hospital by not constructing two extra floors to allow for population growth. The commissioning of both PCH and Fiona Stanley Hospital were mismanaged. We must work together to harness the State’s investment to deliver a purpose-built facility.
The new women’s hospital must continue to serve as a beacon for excellence in women’s health and there must not be any diminution of unique services such as the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) with the move to an already busy tertiary hospital campus.
Gynaecology must not ‘disappear’ as a small surgical speciality within a general hospital. While gynaecological and obstetric practice are increasingly devolved, there is an important intersection in service, training and patient care. Gynaecological oncologists and urogynaecologists have an important role in supporting both the delivery of maternity services and general gynaecological care.
The responsibility of training the next generation of GP obstetricians and specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists must not be forgotten. We must also build on our research and innovation capacity.
Perhaps most importantly, the move presents an opportunity to improve the quality and safety of maternity services available to WA women with onsite access to potentially lifesaving services such as interventional radiology and uterine artery embolisation for massive post-partum haemorrhage, and an intensive care unit.
COVID-19 has destroyed lives and livelihoods across the planet. For many of us in WA, these hardships have been an abstract concept. If still alive, Donald Horne would be eager to write a post-script to his 1964 book The Lucky Country. Our success in managing the pandemic owes more to our isolation, the massive distance from the problems elsewhere in the world, our climate and abundant natural resources, not infinite political and bureaucratic wisdom.
We must not spurn this unique opportunity to make WA a centre of excellence in the way we look after women and their newborns.
ED: Dr Gannon is Head of Department, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, St John of God Subiaco Hospital, a consultant obstetrician in the Perinatal Loss Service of the Women and Newborn Health Service, and President of MDA National.