THE relatively low number of babies born at Waikerie Hospital – believed to be around 30 last year – could be impacting the facility’s ability to retain midwifery staff and its chances of resuming birthing services.
A staff shortage forced the “temporary” suspension of birthing services at Waikerie in late January, and a resumption date has yet to be confirmed.
The suspension has drawn community concern, however, the hospital has birthed less than one baby per week – on average – over the past few years and Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network (RMCLHN) CEO Wayne Champion said birth numbers typically impact staffing scenarios.
“The number of babies born affect how attractive a location is for midwifery staff to work in,” he said.
“Obviously, rural hospitals vary in scale between Mount Barker, which has 600-odd births per year, through to places like Waikerie and Jamestown and Ceduna that have a far smaller number.
“Essentially for the last few years, it’s been around 30 babies per year (born at Waikerie).
“Midwifery staff need to participate in a certain number of birthing processes to maintain their skills over the course of their career, but we can rotate staff through a number of other hospitals from Loxton and Berri to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, to help maintain (midwife) skills.
“Generally speaking, people become midwives because they want to be involved in supporting mums and new babies, and therefore, busier places in terms of birthing are more attractive to them.”
The original Waikerie birthing services suspension announcement had March 2021 as the anticipated services resumption, however Mr Champion said the estimated date was “hard to judge”.
“The person that was on unanticipated leave is still on unplanned leave,” he said.
“It’s sort of hard to judge (when services will resume), as it also depends on some of the other midwives taking non-deferrable leave.
“We’re still actively recruiting to try and fill the midwifery roster, and our ability to resume the service really comes down to our ability to recruit new midwives into the region.”
Mr Champion said while dual-registered nurses and midwives were rostered in Waikerie to provide a flexible working force, dual-registered nurses were also becoming “difficult to attract”.
“Someone who is registered as both a nurse and a midwife can work in the ward as a registered nurse as well as working in maternity as a registered midwife,” he said.
“Over time though, there (has been) a trend towards an increasing number of people training to be midwives without also doing the full nursing course.
“So the dual-trained workforce is becoming harder to attract, and that’s a national issue; a national change in terms of people’s preferences when they go through university.
“People can still train as both; we offer scholarships through the Royal Support Service in order to attract people to nursing and midwifery training and to tie them into working in regional SA.
“Flinders University has the clinical teaching school in Renmark that runs nursing courses, and that’s a way of helping attract, providing a career opportunity for people in the Riverland as well as helping attract people into the service.”