DR JOE SECURES PLEDGE ON OBSTETRICS CRISIS
The NSW Government has agreed to develop an action plan to tackle NSW’s rural and regional obstetrics crisis, after the Independent Member for Wagga Wagga, Dr Joe McGirr, raised the issue in an important Public Interest Debate in parliament last week.
Dr McGirr’s motion calling for the action plan commits the government to deliver the plan by the end of the year.
The motion was unanimously supported in the Legislative Assembly, with Independent, Labor and Coalition MPs speaking in favour and highlighting serious concerns about birthing services in their own electorates.
Dr McGirr said it was an important breakthrough in the fight to address severe shortages of GP obstetricians and midwives and the closure of birthing centres serving country communities.
“In the debate, I pointed out that far too many rural and regional women have been giving birth on their way to hospitals – in cars, ambulances or by the roadside - because their local birthing centres have not been operational,” he said.
“This is a crisis that threatens the safety of women and their babies and undermines the future of small communities, and it is essential that a concerted, targeted effort is made to provide safe and effective birthing services as close to home as possible for rural and regional families.”
During the debate, Dr McGirr told parliament that there were 70 GPs with skills in obstetrics providing birthing services in rural and regional hospitals but that another 55 to 70 will be needed just to maintain services over the next five years.
He said the shortage of key staff has caused the closure of at least 15 birthing centres over the past decade and at least another six are facing closure, downgrades or bypasses.
“The key aim must be to develop strategies that will make a real and lasting difference to the workforce, including better training pathways and professional recognition – to recruit, retain and nurture a growing workforce of rural and regional GP obstetricians and midwives, and to have them respected and supported by specialist services and the health system,” he said.
“By securing a pledge to deliver an action plan by year’s end, we have locked in a course of action that will address this crisis.”
Dr McGirr thanked the MPs who supported the motion and said he would continue to work with the government to ensure the action plan delivers solutions that will ease workforce shortages and address closures of birthing centres.
“For the sake of women, babies, families and the very future of regional communities, we have no choice but to tackle this challenge head-on and I’m pleased to have secured support from across the political aisles to lock in a course of action aimed at making a real and lasting difference,” he said.
The transcript of the Public Interest Debate can be found at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-1323879322-149992/link/2237