Midwives deserve urgent action
In a civilised society, the welfare of health workers, mothers and their infants must come ahead of the unmitigated expansion of profitmaking industries and elitist sporting events.
The plight of overworked and underpaid midwives, which came to light last week, will have left few people unmoved to sympathy and probably quite a few to anger.
In a desperate message on social media, midwives have appealed to Health Minister David Clark to come to their rescue.
Their stories of overwork, some with no time off and no pay for weeks on end make sad and alarming reading. One new graduate reported that she had worked for a full month without time off, looking after 36 women and had not been paid in that time.
There were hundreds of similar stories and appeals for help. Such conditions don’t belong in 21st century New Zealand. Not even in the world’s poorest countries are midwives treated so badly.
There have also been a number of tragic horror stories with overworked and unsupported midwives struggling to deal with the complications which can suddenly develop with any childbirth.
David Clark no doubt already knew his Labour-led Government had a lot to do to resurrect our failing health system. The former head of the Ministry of Health recently resigned, after a string of complaints, and has been replaced with a temporary stand in.
It has long been suggested that the ministry was in need of a major restructuring but even the new minister may not have known about the serious plight of midwives. He has asked the ministry to look at what can be done to address the midwife crisis in both the short and longer term.
He was correct when he said workforce issues and shortages did not develop overnight and that the situation was an indictment on the previous government which had not undertaken proper workforce planning. He may well be correct in that also, but fixing the blame does not fix the problem. Part of that fix should be an immediate, even if temporary, new funding model for midwives which they have been requesting for a long time. While announcements will be made when the Budget is delivered on May 17, that may not be in time for the babies due to be born before then. Already we have midwives leaving the profession or relocating to Australia for better money and working conditions.
In Waikato alone, 30 to 40 midwives have left in the last six months.
How did we ever get into this dreadful situation? The previous government of nine years was not uncaring, or callous, so how is it that it left such a shameful legacy of neglect in the health sector?
Could it be that they had become blinded by the fatally flawed philosophy of neoliberalism which puts private and corporate profits and financial growth way ahead of most other considerations?
In the past nine years we have seen commitments to spend millions on an international yacht race which benefits few beyond the latte houses of Auckland and the already wealthy. More millions have been spent promoting tourism when we already have more visitors than most of our communities can look after properly.
No one really knows how much taxpayer money has been spent subsidising irrigation schemes on land already over-crowded with too many cattle and oozing with effluent and nutrient runoff.
On the other side of the ledger, we have had people dying on waiting lists for elective surgery and now it seems we have reached crisis point with our hardworking midwives who have reached burnout through the underresourcing of the Ministry of Health and inadequate funding systems of district health boards.
To their credit and that of their profession, they have urged pregnant women not to be afraid and that they will still be looked after. Head of the Waikato branch of the New Zealand College of Midwives, Karen Barnes promised the care would be the best they could provide but it would not be as good as it could be due to under-resourcing.
Many pregnant women are being referred to Waikato Hospital and this has increased strain on the hospital which was already having difficulty finding and retaining midwives.
In any civilised society, particularly one as wealthy as New Zealand, the welfare of health workers, mothers and their infants must come ahead of the unmitigated expansion of profit-making industries and elitist sporting events, as important to some as they may be.
Time and tide, and babies ready to be born, wait for no man.
Dear David, the stork is hovering and you need to act swiftly on this one.