A decision to close six special-care nursery cots at Dandenong Hospital and move them 16 kilometres away to Casey Hospital in Berwick will make it harder for families to help feed and care for their sick babies, a new mother says.
A spokesman for Monash Health, which runs both hospitals, said the change to take effect from July 7 was made to accommodate the Berwick area’s ”‘extremely high birth rate” and was designed ”to better align services with the needs of our community”.
But nurses said the decision would break up families whose mothers gave birth at Dandenong and remained in hospital after their babies were moved to Casey.
The change will reduce Dandenong Hospital’s special-care nursery cots from 14 to eight, while Casey Hospital’s cots will increase from 12 to 18.
Eugenia Sequeira-Leo, who son Levi is being cared for in the Dandenong special care nursery after he was born two months’ premature on May 1, said Berwick was too far for families to travel.
She said she and her husband Michael were currently juggling care of their two older children, aged 11 and eight, as she travelled from Noble Park each day to spend as much as she could with Levi.
”The nurses will call and say ‘he’s awake now – do you want us to feed him or are you happy to come in?’ I can be there in 10 or 15 minutes, but if it was Berwick I wouldn’t make it,” she said.
Ms Sequeira-Leo said she hoped Levi would be discharged next week but she worried about the stress on other families who may have to travel to Berwick due to the reduction in Dandenong cots.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said nurses in Dandenong’s special care nursery were devastated that their team would be split, with many nurses required to shift to Berwick.
”It is a very busy maternity service at Dandenong which is well supported by the special-care nursery,” she said.
”This change means there will either be a reduction in births at Dandenong, or mothers will give birth at Dandenong and end up with their babies at Casey.”
The cot reallocation follows concerns that a shortage of neonatal intensive care unit beds in Victoria is putting pressure on services and resulting in some babies being moved too early onto wards with lower staffing levels.
Five new neonatal intensive-care unit cots were funded in May’s state budget, although doctors have said this is not enough to cope with rising demand.
Neonatal intensive-care units provide specialised treatment to critically ill newborns, who often progress to a lower level of support in a special-care nursery before being discharged home.
State Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the cot closure marked a sad day for Dandenong Hospital. ”Breastfeeding mums, who want to be close to their newborns, instead of being able to go to their local hospital will now have to travel further distances,” he said.
Monash Health said careful planning and modelling was behind the cot reallocation. ”Both hospitals will have appropriate resources to provide exceptional care for their local communities,” a spokesman said.
