Surely midwifery is about as front-line as it gets - Sydney Morning Herald

EDITORIAL

"What if something had gone wrong?": Michelle Trotter and Steven Burden with their five week old daughter, Catie, who was born on their kitchen floor. Photo: Janie Barrett

"What if something had gone wrong?''

It's the question asked today by Steven Burden, whose partner Michelle Trotter gave birth on the family's kitchen floor after being turned away from Nepean Hospital despite her desperate pleas to admit her when she was in labour.

It's a question that might be asked by Paula Bailey, whose baby was delivered in the same hospital's car park after she, too, was sent home.

That neither mother lost her baby despite them being delivered by very amateur but loving hands is a relief.

But NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner shouldn't take too much comfort from these fortunate turns of event. That Nepean Hospital - which serves Sydney's west, where the country's highest concentration of births occur - is running 90 shifts a week short in its maternity ward is alarming. There is little doubt that women's and babies' lives are being put at risk by substantial understaffing.

The understaffing is due to two reasons. Hospital budgets are inadequate and managers are heavily pressured to control them.

But there is also a shortage of qualified midwives. The worse the staffing levels get, the more likely midwives are to walk away. One this week spoke of going to work in retail instead, overcome with the stress of not being able to afford her patients the care to which they should be entitled.

It's not the same as an office worker being run off his feet. Or a chief executive up to her neck in balance sheets. Or even a teacher struggling with a child with learning difficulties.

This, simply, is about people's lives.

Skinner has ordered $3 billion be cut from the state's health budget. She says that of those cuts, $2.2 billion in ''efficiency savings'' - such as reductions in overtime and in the use of agency medical staff - would be diverted to front-line services.

One would expect midwifery, with casualty, to be at the head of the queue.

Only in February Skinner defended Blacktown hospital after a woman gave birth with the help of another patient.

''The hospital is not underfunded,'' she told AAP at the time. ''The hospital has never had so many resources, more money than ever before.

''It's been upgraded to the tune of over $300 million. I think expectant mothers are going to get a great deal in our hospitals.''

This week the minister was busily patting herself on the back for the success of Maitland Hospital outperforming city hospitals in waiting times for elective surgery. Its casualty waiting times are also impressive - nine to 25 minutes, on average.

Commenting on Maitland's results, the minister told the Maitland Mercury the state's hospitals were performing better than ever before when it came to timely, quality patient care.

Not so fast, Mrs Skinner.