A heavily pregnant Gladstone woman has made an impassioned plea to the state government to fix the Central Queensland maternity crisis as she prepares to "dodge potholes" on the Bruce Highway to give birth about 100 kilometres away in Rockhampton.
Milena Barbagallo, who is 37 weeks pregnant, admits she is "quite anxious" about the pending birth of her second child as pressure mounts on the government to overturn Gladstone Hospital's maternity bypass.
"It's time to act," Ms Barbagallo said from her Gladstone home.
"This is people's lives. It's women, It's babies, it's men that are dealing with their partners. We need to do something. Someone needs to speak up and someone needs to do something now."
On Monday, Acting Premier Steven Miles met with Health Minister Yvette D'Ath and Queensland Health director-general Shaun Drummond to discuss the crisis after admitting it was unacceptable "that a town like Gladstone does not have a sufficient range of maternity services".
Bypass to end mid-2023, says minister
In a statement last night, Mr Miles and Ms D'Ath said they were working towards the bypass ending by mid-year with the anticipated arrival of four newly recruited obstetricians for the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service.
"The arrival of the four obstetricians is intended to fortify sustainable services for Central Queensland," they said.
"It will enable 10 full-time specialist obstetricians to provide a safe and sustainable birthing service across Rockhampton and Gladstone hospitals."
But the expected return to public maternity services in Gladstone by mid-year — a full year after the hospital went on a birthing bypass in July 2022 — will come too late for many women, such as Ms Barbagallo.
The 33-year-old plans to give birth privately at the Rockhampton Mater Hospital in the next few weeks.
"There's been a lot of uncertainty around where we were delivering," Ms Barbagallo said. "Were we able to deliver here [in Gladstone]?
"We were getting mixed messages. I think really the staff in Gladstone were unsure as well. Rockhampton Base isn't equipped. They've had obstetricians quit.
"When it got to around … 30 weeks, we made the decision to go private."
Gladstone no longer has private maternity services, so they opted for birthing at the Rockhampton Mater Hospital, about an hour and 20 minutes' drive north-west.
Further to travel, more to pay
But travelling to Rockhampton with husband Trent Sorohan to deliver privately means they have the added cost of family members travelling with them to care for their toddler in a Rockhampton hotel while Ms Barbagallo gives birth.
And to get to Rockhampton, they will have to navigate the Bruce Highway, potentially in wet weather.
"It's in pretty poor condition for a national highway," Ms Barbagallo said.
"A few weeks back … we travelled up [to Rockhampton] for my husband's football team and four cars blew tyres with the potholes.
"One car was involved in a serious accident where the car was completely written off.
"There's a lot of uncertainties, which really add to the stress."
As a guidance counsellor, Ms Barbagallo said she was no stranger to using coping strategies and understanding "that there are a lot of things out of our control".
But she said it was difficult to avoid stories about traumatic births while Gladstone's maternity services remained on bypass.
"This is potentially our lives and our health and our futures at risk," Ms Barbagallo said.
Queensland Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne, who lives in Gladstone, said the birthing bypass was impacting other aspects of Central Queensland life, beyond maternity services.
Senator Allman-Payne said she knew of young teachers making the choice to avoid Gladstone "because there's not adequate health services here for them".
"Health services generally need much more investment by the state government here in Gladstone," she said.
"But we're certainly at crisis point in terms of our maternity services. The government really needs to act to address this."
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton said on Monday Ms D'Ath had quashed restrictions on Queensland Health obstetricians from working as locums in Central Queensland but called for the ban to be "lifted for all healthcare workers across the state".
"If doctors and nurses want to use their leave to do short-term work at other hospitals in our state that desperately need them, let them," Dr Boulton said.
"Queensland doctors are using their personal time to work in New South Wales hospitals as locums while our own hospitals are left short-staffed."
Mr Miles and Ms D'Ath said Queensland was exploring "multiple opportunities" to secure a specialist obstetric locum for Gladstone Hospital, which would enable the return of 24/7 emergency obstetric cover.
"It's anticipated an announcement will be made on this in the coming weeks," they said.
But long-term plans for Gladstone Hospital's birthing bypass being lifted relies on the four newly recruited obstetricians starting at the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service by mid-year.
