The demise of another maternity service, this time in regional WA, is bad news for young families, but nor does is bode well for the rest of the community.
St John of God Health has called time on private maternity services at its Bunbury Hospital, citing a chronic shortage of midwives and not enough obstetricians, GP-obstetricians, and paediatricians available locally.
Patients will be offered the choice of a transfer to Bunbury Regional Hospital or to SJOG facilities in Perth. I’m guessing the latter will be a fairly unsatisfactory option for families, so they will head straight to the public system.
It comes hot on the heels of the closure of three maternity units in Perth late last year, including at SJOG’s Mt Lawley hospital and the Ramsay-owned Glengarry hospital.
Workforce shortages are starting to sound familiar, and not just in maternity services. SJOG blamed the closure of its maternity units on a drop in demand, highlighting the bite that cost-of-living pressures are putting on the private sector.
Earlier this year, a State Government lifebuoy was thrown to the ailing mental health clinic in Cockburn, which was run by Bethesda until its abrupt closure before the paint on the walls had barely dried.
Workforce shortages are starting to sound familiar, and not just in maternity services. SJOG blamed the closure of its maternity units on a drop in demand, highlighting the bite that cost-of-living pressures are putting on the private sector.
The Government has since signed a three-year agreement to lease the clinic to boost public mental health services in the southern suburbs.
Dr Shirley Bowen is no stranger to the private hospital system and has recently taken the helm as WA’s director-general of health – a role once dubbed the poisoned chalice (and there is no reason to think the challenges of the job have changed).
One of her first tasks might be to look at the fragile see-saw that exists between public and private health services in WA.
One cannot survive without the other, and right now both are struggling.