Birthing services at South Australia's Waikerie hospital are unlikely to return as the district's Health Advisory Council (HAC) and Local Health Network (LHN) attempt to address urgent staff shortages.
Services were temporarily suspended in the regional town at the start of 2021 to address "unexpected" staffing shortages, but they never reopened.
"We literally don't have the staff, so it doesn't look bright for reopening those services at this stage," HAC presiding member Justin Loffler said.
"It's very difficult to recruit anyone right now — midwives, enrolled nurses, registered nurses, even cooks, cleaners and maintenance staff.
"We're still surviving [as a hospital] but our issues around staffing have not gone away and we've only had very limited success in attracting new staff."
Recruitment system strain
SA Health Minister Chris Picton said the Riverland Mallee Coorong LHN board was examining all options for reversing the suspension.
This includes trialling a midwifery group practice in Berri and Murray Bridge, in a bid to attract more midwives to the region long term and improve sustainability of birthing services in the Riverland.
Mr Loffler said other options being considered relied on sharing midwives from other Riverland towns, who would travel to Waikerie to offer localised services.
But the staffing strain is being felt across the entire region.
"They don't have the staff to spare to have a rotating pool that moves around," he said.
"We'll keep trying but when you've been waiting this long for your midwifery service, it looks pretty grim."
Mr Loffler said while recruitment efforts for midwives, nurses and all hospital staff were ongoing, other issues, including the availability of housing, were having an impact.
"Recently in Waikerie there was literally no short-term housing available, no lease rentals available," he said.
"I know we've had at least a couple of potential nurses who were unable to come to the town because they literally couldn't find a place to live.
"Hopefully once we work through some of these issues we can get back to a balance of staff and have a really good look at where our midwifery and birthing services go from here."
Mr Picton said SA Health was addressing the widespread shortages by increasing the number of graduate nurses in the region and through offering placements to junior doctors, including at Waikerie Hospital.
