By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SCROLL TO BELOW THIS STORY TO POST A COMMENT, OR AT FACEBOOK.COM/GREATERDANDENONGWEEKLY OR OR USE TWITTER @DANDENONGWEEKLY
MATERNITY unit staff and mothers-to-be booked in at South-Eastern Private Hospital in Noble Park were given only three days notice of last Friday’s closure of the hospital’s maternity unit.
Chief executive officer Neil Henderson guaranteed that 250 booked-in expectant mothers would be placed in other hospitals this year, some as soon as last weekend.
“Everyone [due this weekend] seems to have been accommodated,” he said. “Some were upset at first but they calmed down a bit when we have been able to make alternative arrangements.”
Demographics and rising competition from other hospitals, particularly Casey Hospital and St John of God in Berwick, were to blame for the unit’s closure, he said.
The unit relied heavily on patients from Casey, given that its nearest suburbs Noble Park and Dandenong were of low socio-economic status.
At its peak the unit was delivering about 800 babies a year. That figure had dropped to about 500 – about three every two days.
“It was not very viable to deliver a high level of service,” Mr Henderson said. “Young women are more aware and do their own research. They’re more likely to choose the high clinical set-up at Monash Medical Centre.”
The unit’s 25 midwives found out midway through last week they were to finish up at the hospital on Friday.
Mr Henderson defended late notice given to patients and staff. “We’ve had staff take sick leave as soon as they knew that it would close,” he said. “That’s why we gave a short lead-in – we could have been still open but with no midwives. It was a safety issue.”
He was confident midwives who wanted to continue to work would find placements at Knox Private Hospital, The Bays Hospital in Mornington and St John of God Hospital – all were “actively recruiting”, he said.
“Some of the staff were upset,” Mr Henderson said. “We offered everyone a chance to stay on. They could do retraining. They are, after all, already trained nurses in some way.”
Mr Henderson said there was no shortage of vacancies for expectant mothers in the private health system in the eastern and south-eastern suburbs.
For all the latest breaking news, visit greaterdandenongweekly.com.au. Also, follow the Greater Dandenong Weekly at facebook.com/greaterdandenongweekly or on Twitter @DandenongWeekly.
