Tasmania's peak medical body says maternity services in the state's north-west are no longer safe and the state government needs to immediately take them over.
It comes as a group of north-west-coast mothers have shared their traumatic birth stories with Tasmania's Department of Health in the hope of improving the system.
Maternity services in Tasmania's north-west are unique.
While antenatal care is provided through the public North West Regional Hospital, all birthing services for public and private patients are provided at the North West Private Hospital.
The Tasmanian government moved birthing services to the private hospital in 2016 as there were no adequate facilities in the public hospital.
Australian Medical Association (AMA) Tasmania vice-president Annette Barratt said the system was not working and the Tasmanian government needed to immediately take over birthing services.
"We believe the current maternity services which are based at the private are inefficient, ineffective and dangerous to mothers and children, and need to be changed so that the patients are now seen back in the public sector," Dr Barratt said.
"The service is overwhelmed, does not have sufficient doctors, does not have sufficient midwives and has been on bypass four times in the past few months and should, according to staff, have been on bypass more frequently.
"So women are presenting to Burnie in labour and being told, 'Sorry we are full, please keep going to Launceston and if Launceston is overcrowded, please keep going to Hobart'.
"We know some [babies] are actually delivered in the emergency department [ED]."
Independent reviews of maternity services in the north-west identified issues in 2017 and 2021.
In the 2021 review, it was recommended that public maternity services be taken back over by the Tasmanian Health Service.
"This aligns with the delivery of public maternity services elsewhere in the state and provides opportunities to move toward a more fully integrated and networked statewide service," the report recommended.
The state government has agreed to implement that change and said it would be in place by November 2024.
Dr Barratt said that needed to happen sooner.
"The AMA believes it could happen quite quickly," she said.
"The services are already in the private sector, there's no reason why the state government couldn't look at leasing those services back under the public sector and taking over the management if they don't have the space to do it themselves."
'We can't have another year and a half worth of trauma'
Penguin local Tegan Murphy has been collecting birth stories and concerns from women on the north-west coast for the past few months.
She has so far collected more than 30 stories — some of which she describes as "traumatic" — and has passed them on to Tasmania's premier and the Department of Health.
Ms Murphy said some of the persistent issues raised were that there were not enough staff at the private hospital, there was no continuity of care, women were being induced and then sent home due to staff shortages, and public patients were being rushed out of birthing suites to accommodate private patients.
She said other stories included pain relief not being given when requested, new mothers being left alone on wards without midwives, doctors not asking patients for consent before conducting exams, and mistakes that had ended in ongoing injuries for children and babies
"The poor midwives are trying to care for all these people and they can't really do their job," Ms Murphy said.
She said mental health issues were also an issue for north-west mothers.
"Mental health issues and PTSD from birth trauma and then no support once you've got it," she said.
Ms Murphy agreed with the AMA that maternity services needed to go back to public hands.
"We can't have another year and a half worth of trauma," she said.
"How many times do they need to be told before they actually jump in and take control and do something?"
Emily Shepherd, from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, shared the AMA's views and believed the change needed to happen "sooner rather than later".
"We know that the service is already struggling to staff effectively, and the government needs to step in now and take over the service before the service essentially isn't able to operate due to the lack of staff," Ms Shepherd said.
"We know that over the next month or so, according to the current rostering situation, that the North West Private Hospital maternity services, that there will be instances of up to a week where maternity services will have to go on bypass — that's not appropriate for women in the north-west to have to be travelling to the LGH and the Royal for maternity services.
"What we have at the moment is a very disjointed service."
Tasmania's Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said the transition should not be rushed.
"In our time, nearly nine years as a government, we've completely transformed the model of care for maternity and we're continuously improving it," he said.
"There are further steps to be taken but they won't be rushed, and the health minister and the department are working through that in a way that's in the genuine best interests of women and their babies and families."
The North West Private Hospital was contacted for comment.
