Pregnancy and maternity care is a key systemic advocacy issue for Health Consumers’ Council. We believe that informed choices are paramount to safe maternal and newborn care, and that involving birthing people and families at all stages and at all levels is critical for improving maternity services.
Women and Babies Hospital
In April 2023, the Western Australian Minister for Health announced that the site of the new Women and Babies Hospital will be relocated to the Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) precinct.
Since that time, HCC has hosted a number of opportunities for consumer representatives to discuss and provide input on the plans for the new hospital to the WA Health team.
In summary, feedback provided has included:
- advocating for a range of consumer perspectives to be taken on board as plans are developed
- questions about how the new location will allow for tri-location of maternity, neonates, and adult services
- the lack of consumer involvement in decisions about priorities for services to be located at QEII
- the lack of information about the plan for the babies who need surgery immediately after birth, who may not be in a stable condition to travel the distance between the FSH precinct and Perth Children’s Hospital.
- concerns about the risks to infant and parent mental health – and the associated long-term impact of early childhood trauma – for families who may be separated when neonatal surgery is needed.
- concerns that the decision to relocate to the FSH precinct was made to avoid short-term disruption without considering the long-term impacts of the location for women and babies across WA.
Overall, there was general recognition that there is not an immediately obvious “easy” solution to these issues. HCC have advocated consistently for a range of consumers with diverse perspectives to be included to help to identify the issues and be part of the solution.
Despite this frustration there was strong interest in engaging with the process going forward, to enable consumer voices to be part of the deliberative process to reach the best possible solution for the WA community.
What’s next?
HCC will continue to advocate for consumer voices at all levels of decision making and continue to work with relevant government and health system parties to progress discussion about this issue.
To be kept informed about this work, email info@hconc.org.au
Previous projects
Read more about our previous projects in this area, such as the My Baby WA app, on our archived systemic work page.
Consumer Involvement in Policy and Services
We have a Facebook Group for women and families who would like to be more involved in helping shape maternity services. You can join this group here.
Click here for the Facebook Group