Leading doctors say the state government should consider building a new neonatal intensive care unit in Melbourne’s west as new data shows hospitals have been overwhelmed by seriously ill babies this year.
Leaked documents show all of Victoria’s neonatal intensive care units at the Royal Children’s, Royal Women’s, Monash Medical Centre and Mercy hospitals were either ”closed” or ”restricted” for new patients on at least seven days since July.
In August, the closures coincided with the transfer of a critically ill baby from Victoria to a South Australian hospital. However, it is unclear if this was due to a lack of resources.
The documents, from Victoria’s perinatal information system, also show the units have been working at or beyond capacity, in a trend doctors say is putting babies at risk of medical errors and infections due to overcrowding.
A shortage of resources has meant twins have been separated from each other and their parents, who have had to travel long distances to be with them. One doctor, who did not want to be named, said the system had been in ”meltdown” for several weeks this year, forcing doctors to ”horse trade” women and babies to make room for more coming in.
While the government says it has funded an additional eight neonatal intensive care cots since it came to power in 2010 and will increase NICU capacity at the new Monash Children’s Hospital when it opens at Clayton in 2017, leading doctors are calling for the government to consider building a fourth neonatal intensive care unit inside a maternity hospital to cope with increasing demand.
The clinical services director of women’s and children’s services at Sunshine Hospital, Associate Professor Glyn Teale, said given that the birth rate had increased dramatically in Melbourne’s west in recent years, a new neonatal intensive care unit at Sunshine could make ”geographical sense”.
While building a new NICU would be a ”huge next step” for the hospital, he said births there had jumped from about 3363 in 2008 to more than 5300 this year. This meant an increasing number of women whose babies were at risk of premature birth or illness were having to be transferred to hospitals with neonatal intensive care units on the other side of Melbourne.
”There is a need … In the last year, we were the third-largest birthing unit in the state, so if you’re dealing with those sorts of numbers, you’re going to end up with babies potentially needing intensive care,” he said.
”There is ongoing growth in the area and we’re not expecting it to slow down, so we do need to plan for that in the western suburbs.”
The head of obstetrics at Monash Health, Professor Euan Wallace, said that in the face of increasing demand for maternity and neonatal services, Sunshine Hospital would be a logical place for a new unit.
”A review of services to consider a fourth NICU is a very sensible thing to do, and Sunshine looks like the most appropriate place to build one,” he said.
In 2011, then Victorian auditor-general Des Pearson said the state government had failed to plan for and manage maternity services, particularly in Melbourne’s growing northern and western suburbs, where hundreds of women gave birth in an emergency department due to a lack of birthing services.
A spokesman for the government would not comment on whether it was planning to build a new unit but said it ”will continue to invest in the capacity of our health system, including NICUs, to ensure all Victorians have access to world-class care”.
