Public support needed to fix untenable situation
As a midwife, I have to accompany the woman through to Dunedin and we transfer to the obstetric team on arrival. On the way home we either got stranded in Dunedin, if the crew had to return immediately, or got as far as Alex. Husbands or colleagues had to turn out in all hours to pick us up. What other health professional would end up in this situation?
Going to the press isn’t easy. I am bound by patient confidentiality and journalists ask a lot of questions, but despite that the outcome was good. We now have authority to control the mode of transfer.
You work hard for the Wanaka
you probably barely have time to answer these questions. Why is this such an important issue to you/what drives you?
Women in Wanaka deserve the same service as the women anywhere else in this country. We all work hard and pay our taxes. Yes, we chose to live in Wanaka, but Wanaka isn’t a sleepy little town any more; it’s growing and we deserve better services. It grinds my gears when I hear ‘well, it’s the price you pay for living in paradise’. Just because we live in a ‘‘resort’’ town, we aren’t on a permanent holiday. Everyday life is just the same for us as it is for you in the city.
What would help improve the
situation in Wanaka in the short term, and how can that be achieved?
I can’t be the only midwife, so we need at least two locums to fill the gap when Morgan leaves in April.
In the long term, what do you envisage
the ultimate solution for the district?
We actually need a secondary hospital for the whole region for all our health needs. Preferably in Cromwell to cover Queenstown, Wanaka and surrounds, Cromwell and Alexandra.
In the shorter term, and I mean by spring 2018, Wanaka needs a maternity hub. This is a building dedicated to maternity care, with employed midwives available to provide antenatal, labour, birth and postnatal care, including lactation consultancy services.
The current model of midiwfery clearly doesn’t work in remote rural regions and we are tasking the DHB or the community to build a trust to ensure the sustainability of maternity services.
Anything else you’d like to say/add?
love the job they do. It’s incredibly rewarding but the goodwill and patience has run out. Colleagues are leaving the profession because of the conditions and pay. We need the public to get behind us and campaign their MPs. We greatly appreciate what the women in Wanaka have done for us; now it needs to happen elsewhere in the country. Midwives’ complaints get ignored at ministry level and we get criticised in the press. Women and their families’ support will make a difference, as they can’t be ignored.