Burwood birthing unit again considered
Residents and officials are pushing for a new birthing facility to be built in a Christchurch suburb rather than in the city centre.
The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) said in December it was planning to build a new primary birthing facility (PBF) in the city centre.
But CDHB board member Andy Dickerson said the new Burwood Hospital site was also being considered as an option to replace the birthing unit that closed there in 2016.
Dickerson said it would be cheaper and easier to build there as the CDHB already owned the land, there would be no resource consent issues and fewer operational costs compared with a standalone unit.
Burwood’s old birthing unit used to be the region’s second busiest maternity facility and there had been ‘‘substantial population growth’’ in Prestons Park, which was near the hospital.
The central city already had two birthing options – St George’s birthing unit and Christchurch Womens’ Hospital (CWH) – Dickerson said.
Burwood mother Melissa Taurima gathered close to 3000 signatures in a petition to save the Burwood birthing unit in 2014 after the CDHB announced it would close.
Taurima said her mother, herself and her daughter Isla had all been born at Burwood.
She knew anecdotally of women in east Christchurch giving birth in cars or at home because they were unable to reach CWH in time.
Eastern residents disliked going to CWH as it was further away from home, had no parking spaces and asked women who gave birth without complications to leave a couple of hours afterwards.
‘‘We really need a birthing facility on that side of town,’’ she said.
College of Midwives chief executive Karen Guilliland said women needed to be able to access appropriate primary birth care options as a right and women in the eastern suburbs had been missing out for too long.
The college’s Canterbury West Coast branch chairwoman Violet Clapham said the educator’s priority was to get a new PBF in Christchurch and both Burwood and the central city would be good options.
She said the old Burwood unit was a much-loved part of the community that was easy to get to.
‘‘Many of these [eastern suburbs] families are not as mobile as others; transport can be an issue meaning they opt for the central city at CWH.’’
Clapham said there was a real need for a PBF in the east, which was a high-density area with many young families.
‘‘If they put [the new facility] in the east it will be very well used.’’
Labour’s Christchurch East MP Poto Williams, who presented a petition with more than 4000 signatures to save the old Burwood facility to parliament in 2016, said it would be ‘‘fantastic’’ for families in the eastern suburbs to get a new PBF.
CDHB planning and funding general manager Carolyn Gullery said in December that plans to build a new facility in the city centre had been on hold since 2015, but options were being investigated this year. Progress was expected over the next six months.
A recent CDHB maternity report said: ‘‘The pressure of over 3000 well women accessing [CWH] when they could be birthing at a [PBF] means it is timely to consider what other maternity services we need to have in the central city.’’