The fast-growing Central Coast is a magnet for young families but its maternity services are in decline. Until recently, three hospitals provided maternity services on the NSW Central Coast, which has long attracted young families priced out of the Sydney housing market.
Expectant mothers could choose Gosford or Wyong public hospitals or the district’s only private maternity service at Gosford Private Hospital.
Gosford Private’s owner, Healthe Care, closed its maternity service in March because of declining profitability – a trend affecting other private hospitals.
Approximately 30 midwives were made redundant in the closure. No babies have been delivered at Wyong Hospital since its maternity unit was “temporarily” closed and converted to a COVID-19 ward in 2020.
Hopes that Wyong’s birthing unit would reopen were dashed when the Central Coast Local Health District quietly removed the baths in the birthing rooms and arranged for the unit to be converted to offices and sleeping quarters for doctors.
Today, the region is served by one surviving maternity unit at Gosford Hospital. And it is under such strain that it recently lost its accreditation to train obstetricians and gynaecologists because of concerns about clinical supervision and safety.
NSWNMA delegate at Gosford Hospital Dee Dobson has worked as a nurse and midwife for 21 years, mostly on the Central Coast.
Dee is a full-time midwife at Gosford Hospital and worked casual shifts at Gosford Private “because our full-time wage is not enough to make ends meet – even on the Central Coast”.
She said the loss of maternity services at Wyong and Gosford Private, which birthed more than 400 babies last year, was “causing great anxiety” for Central Coast expectant mothers.
“Women chose private hospitals and private obstetricians for a variety of reasons and now that choice has been taken away from them,” she said.
GOSFORD HOSPITAL STRUGGLING TO COPE
ABC News reported “an outpouring of community concern about the lack of choice for women in a region with a population of 350,000 and growing” and noted the risks of expectant mothers travelling longer distances for private obstetric care.
Despite the community concern, NSW Cabinet ministers failed to take a single question about the local health service when they held a community forum in Terrigal in April.
“Ministers avoided us (nurses and midwives) at all costs, but after the forum I managed to speak one-on- one with Health Minister Ryan Park and Premier Chris Minns,” Dee said.
“I heard the same old story – we don’t have any more money for health services.
“However, the government has given Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs millions of dollars for stadium improvements (a $40 million grant to build a football ‘centre of excellence’), so it’s a matter of priorities.
“The Minns government would rather renovate football stadiums than look after the maternity needs of women on the Central Coast.”
She said Gosford Hospital was already struggling to cope with about 3000 births a year and would find it challenging to handle an influx of mothers and babies who would otherwise have gone to Gosford Private.
“Gosford Public maternity ward is often full, even though eight of our 32 beds are unfunded.
“We are chronically understaffed as our rosters come out, but no extra midwifery positions have been created.
“At the same time, we have a shortage of doctors. “The LHD is trying to recruit doctors and registrars but for now we have locums running the hospital, which is stressful for the midwives.”
POST GRADS COUNTED IN STAFF NUMBERS
The staffing crisis is made worse by the fact that postgraduate student midwives are counted in staff numbers.
“Students are supposed to work under the supervision of a midwife but they are too busy to watch the students most of the time,” Dee said.
“We just have to check in from time to time and hope that the student will come to us when they are unsure or needs advice. This is a statewide practice in all maternity services.
“I trained at Gosford Hospital, first as a nurse and later as a midwife, and I have always been extremely proud of where I worked and always loved being a midwife.
“This is the first time in my career that my job is causing me extreme anxiety.
“The problems all stem from the NSW government not paying health workers enough money.
“As a result, obstetricians and midwives are leaving but Chris Minns is not listening.
“The doctor shortage is so bad that Central Coast LHD has not been able to hold any gyno clinic for non- life-threatening procedures for over a year.”
Dee said doctors were leaving Gosford Hospital because their calls for more staff and better conditions went unanswered.
“Their numbers fell to the point where we no longer had enough obstetricians to provide support as a training hospital and we lost training accreditation from RANZCOG (Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists).”
A spokeswoman for RANZCOG told The Sydney Morning Herald that “following significant consultation regarding concerns around clinical supervision and safety, the college has made the difficult decision to suspend training accreditation at Gosford Hospital from semester one, February 2025”.