Poor manner born
Hospital didn’t cope with influx
THE Gold Coast University Hospital was not prepared for the increase and complexity in maternity cases once it opened, leading to several critical incidents, according to a new report.
Health bosses did not allow for an increase in births when the hospital opened in September 2013. Within three years, the number of new babies had risen 34 per cent to about 5000 each year.
The birth centre had 36 beds and six cots in its intensive care unit and a 20bed special nursery.
The ICU was accepting babies of all gestational ages and rather than go to Brisbane for tertiary care, mothers were arriving at the new service.
An investigation report released by the Health Ombudsman office yesterday found the initial move from the old Southport hospital to Parklands was “characterised by internal and external pressures and a lack of preparedness”.
On the back of reports by the Bulletin, the Health Ombudsman office received 30 complaints between 2014-2017, sparking 21 assessments which led to six investigations. The office found:
Poor co-ordination between GCUH emergency and maternity.
Slowness in creating systems to collect maternity data so there was “no one source of truth for a patient’s clinical records”.
Failure to flag high-risk patients.
One of several cases in the report involved a 14-year-old pregnant patient brought to the hospital’s ED in late 2014 following an alleged assault.
ED staff had identified the patient, who was 25 weeks pregnant, required maternity services but “failed to appreciate” the significance blood-sugar level.
The handover also failed to include the patient’s poor compliance with her insulin levels and “there was confusion and disagreement” on who would be responsible for her ongoing care. Her baby died in utero.
Acting Health Ombudsman Andrew Brown said: “A number of families experienced painful and tragic outcomes of her while receiving care in the GCUH maternity service.”
However, he said he was satisfied the health service provided a safe and quality maternity service which was committed to improvement along with patient safety.
Dr Deborah Bailey, the clinical director of specialty and procedural services, said the health service had accepted all eight recommendations in the report.