ALBURY OBSTETRIC SERVICES
Mr GLACHAN (Albury) [5.40 p.m.]: Some years ago a Labor Minister for Health closed the obstetrics unit at the Albury Base Hospital and gave responsibility for all obstetric services in Albury to the Sisters of Mercy at the Mercy Hospital. Since that time, the Sisters of Mercy have provided what I regard as one of the best services for mothers and babies in New South Wales, and possibly in Australia. The Sisters provide a comprehensive and excellent service and, of course, they are noted for their standard of care of those who attend their hospitals. For various reasons, no obstetricians live or practise in Albury. Therefore, the Sisters of Mercy fly in obstetricians from Sydney to provide specialist services. Obstetricians practise in the hospital seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Obstetricians live and work in Wodonga but they work only at the Wodonga Hospital. Recently there has been discussion about having only one obstetric service for Albury-Wodonga. It has been suggested, for various reasons of cost and efficiency, that the service should be based at the Wodonga Hospital. The Greater Murray Health Service engaged consultants to provide a report outlining options for the service to consider. In the report the consultants said that the capital cost of upgrading the Mercy Hospital would be $2 million capital if it were to continue to provide an obstetric service. The people of Albury-Wodonga should be told why a $2
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million upgrade is needed, because the hospital is already providing the service.
The consultants also said that the capital cost of building an obstetric service unit at the Albury Base Hospital would be $4.8 million and that there would be a recurrent cost in addition to that. The consultants also said that the recurrent cost of the service at the Mercy Hospital is $4.1 million, but if it were contracted out to the Victorian Department of Health in Wodonga it would cost only $2.6 million. That would obviously result in a large saving. The people of Albury need to know what the New South Wales Department of Health would get for $2.6 million. Would it only pay for the delivery of the babies at the hospital? Would the rest of the full and complete service at the Mercy Hospital be provided? If those extra services would not be provided for $2.6 million, how much would they cost, bearing in mind that the Greater Murray Health Service said that the extra services would be made available in Albury?
The obstetrics unit at the Mercy Hospital provides Medicare and private patients with access to an antenatal clinic, choices in care from midwife clinic, shared care between general practitioner and obstetrician, and obstetrician care. There is also access to prenatal education, lactation consultants, physiotherapy, social work and a counselling service, domiciliary midwives and the parents and baby unit. Would all of those services be available if babies were delivered only at Wodonga Hospital? Another important point is that at present there are 20 beds at the Wodonga Hospital and 25 beds at the Mercy Hospital. The Victorian Government plans to upgrade the unit at Wodonga so that it can cope with births from both sides of the border. However, it plans to provide only 30 beds. There are currently 45 beds in that area. How will 30 beds which are all situated in Wodonga deal with births from the whole region? The region includes not only Albury but smaller towns such as Holbrook, Culcairn, Walla Walla and others. If the obstetric services are discontinued in Albury and provided only in Wodonga at a particular cost, for how long will the cost be fixed? Will the Victorian Government be able to increase the cost at some time in the future and have New South Wales over a barrel, as it were, because this State has no alternative?
The people of Albury need to know about the ratio of induction of labour, about epidurals and caesarean sections at both Mercy Hospital and Wodonga Hospital so that they can compare the two services and establish what they would receive if the service was available only in Wodonga. They are important issues. Another important issue is that intensive care beds are available only at the Albury Base Hospital; I understand there are no intensive care beds at Wodonga. If the Mercy Hospital decides to give up obstetric services, I will ask the Minister for Health to provide an obstetric service at the Albury Base Hospital. The doctors who practise in Wodonga are paid more per delivery than they would be if they practised in Albury. Is it possible for the Minister to work out a contract system with those doctors so that they could be paid the same amount in Albury as they receive in Wodonga? That would make working at the Albury Base Hospital more attractive for the doctors who currently work across the border.