Sanderson says hospital bypass is standard after birthing mothers couldn’t attend Peel due to staff shortages

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson claims it is standard practice for birthing mothers to be bypassed to other hospitals after it was revealed Peel Health Campus was so understaffed last week that pregnant women couldn’t give birth there. Ms Sanderson also strongly refuted claims the hospital wasn’t able to manage the influx of patients since it was handed back to the public from Ramsay Health Care a month ago. Last week senior staff at the hospital claimed PHC was struggling to manage the influx of patients and that some had been placed in staff offices due to a lack of space. They also claimed that birthing mothers had to be turned away due to a lack of staff. A South Metropolitan Health Service spokesperson confirmed that women due to give birth at Peel were relocated due to the unavailability of an on-call anaesthetist. On Wednesday, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said maternity bypass was “standard”. “From time to time when services are busy, maternity bypass is a standard operational procedure, which is always done with patient safety in mind,” she said. “Now in this instance, it was because there was no anaesthetist on-call. “Labour is very unpredictable, and women going in may not need an anaesthetic, but things occur where they may need access to an epidural or an emergent emergency caesarean.” Due to the bypass, Mandurah mothers were forced to drive either to Rockingham General Hospital — at least 30 minutes’ drive away — or Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch — which can take up to an hour. Ms Sanderson said she was concerned that unnamed sources were briefing inaccurate information about the service. However, sources inside the hospital maintained that the service was under increasing pressure and that it was sometimes incapable of dealing with the influx of patients. Peel Health Campus is the only major hospital catering to Mandurah’s population of almost 100,000 people and the Peel region’s wider population of 143,000. The claims come as the State Government comes under increasing pressure to confirm a construction timeline to expand the hospital. While the transition from private to public was met with much fanfare a month ago, little progress has been made since. The State Government first announced expansion plans and $152 million in funding for the project in 2020, under then-Premier Mark McGowan. The announcement promised a mental health emergency centre, additional operating theatre, more than 60 additional inpatient beds, 15 palliative care hospice beds, 12 chemotherapy places, extra outpatient services, a new medical imaging services building, reconfiguration of the emergency department and expansion of the day procedure unit.