Posted on August 5, 2010 by by valerirojas

According to the latest review on public maternity services in the ACT, women are getting high quality service. ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher said today.

“Earlier this year, I commissioned an independent clinical review into maternity services across the ACT to review obstetric service delivery and clinical outcomes after concerns were raised publicly about the quality of care being provided at TCH,” Ms Gallagher said.

“The report identifies that the clinical outcomes for mothers and babies at both public maternity units are consistent with comparable hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. This report demonstrates to the community that public maternity services in the ACT provide high quality maternity services for residents of the ACT and surrounding region,” Ms Gallagher said.

“The review included both public maternity services and was not solely related to The Canberra Hospital maternity unit. Private maternity units in the ACT were also invited to participate in this review and their statements and data were collected and used as part of the overall analysis of the maternity service provided in the ACT,” she said.

“The review highlighted that there is strong support amongst stakeholders for a Territory wide maternity service. ACT Health will now consult on the recommendations and in the meantime will commence negotiations with Calvary Hospital in relation to a Territory wide service,” the Minister said.

The review has highlighted a number of areas where improvement can be made to public maternity services. These include:

• Reporting to the community
• Improving consumer representation
• Standardising risk management processes
• Improving clinical governance structures
• Increasing staff numbers
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities.

ACT Health is also conducting a public consultation and wants your feedback, see below for more details.

Feel free to share your good or bad experiences  in the comments section below.

ACT Health website info

Consultation – Have your say

ACT Health is now engaging in a 6 week consultation period for staff and the community to comment on the report, its findings, and ACT Health’s preliminary response to the recommendations.

Feedback can be provided at maternityreport@act.gov.au until 16 September 2010.

Links are available below to the final report and ACT Health’s preliminary response to the recommendations.

Download

Review of Public Maternity Services 2010

Download:

Review of Public Maternity Services 2010 (PDF File – 610k)

ACT Health’s Preliminary response to the recommendations

Download:

ACT Health’s preliminary response to the review (Microsoft Word Document – 72k)

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