NORTH-WEST residents are being urged to keep fighting for a hospital in Melton, with pregnant women being forced to travel long distances because of a shortage of maternity places in growth areas.
Outgoing Melton mayor Justin Mammarella urged residents to pressure the state government, saying a hospital was crucial for an area that could be home to 230,000 residents by 2030.
“We are the fastest-growing area in Australia and there remains an absolute need for a 24-hour general hospital in Melton,” he said.
Mr Mammarella’s calls were echoed by resident John Southall, who in 2010 helped organise a petition signed by 3500 residents.
A second petition, led by Melton Council, was signed by 4000 people and supported by other western suburbs councils.
Mr Southall said pressure on hospitals would worsen as the west’s population continued to increase.
The Weekly last week revealed that mothers were being turned away from Sunshine Hospital, with midwives struggling to cope with an influx of pregnant women wanting to give birth there.
Victorian Health Services commissioner Beth Wilson said resource constraints at Werribee Mercy and the Royal Women’s Hospital were forcing mothers to apply to give birth in Sunshine.
She said she received an outpouring of complaints from women in the west.
Taylors Hill resident Rachel Clayton, now pregnant with her seventh child, will travel more than 40 minutes to Bacchus Marsh to give birth.
Last month she was told that despite giving birth to her previous six children at the Royal Women’s, no birthing suite would be available for her in December.
“It was very distressing because I’m comfortable with the hospital and staff,” she said. “They told me my best bet would be Sunshine Hospital, but after two visits there I wasn’t convinced by the level of service. I felt like I was just a number there . . . they were overworked and under-resourced.”
Ms Clayton said that with no hospital in Melton, she had no choice but to travel to Bacchus Marsh. “If you live in the north-west there are no other options.”
Western Health chief executive, Associate Professor Alex Cockram said almost 4600 babies were born at Sunshine Hospital last financial year.
She said the hospital was doing everything it could to accommodate the increasing demand for its services. “We have employed more staff and recently employed four additional registrars and additional consultant specialists,” he said. “We also recently transferred our pregnancy day stay unit to a much larger area.”
Melton’s chief executive Kel Tori said the council was preparing a proposal for the government to fund a health needs assessment study to establish what sort of hospital was required and how big it should be. Mr Tori said the region was growing on average 8 per cent a year and would only increase with the expansion of the urban growth boundary.
