Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Bentley Hospital in my electorate of Swan, but, before the member for Perth leaves, I would like to acknowledge her support for Lyme disease. I am Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, and we recently ran a morning session on Lyme disease. It is on the Hansard record, if you want to check it. It was a very adversarial hearing, and there was evidence taken from both sides of the argument. I congratulate the member for Perth on her support for the Lyme disease cause.

I just want to relay some good news about the Bentley Hospital, in my electorate, and that is that we have managed to save the maternity unit, for the second time. On 9 November I spoke in this place about the report that had been released on that same day into the future of maternity services in Western Australia. The report had recommended the closure of the Bentley obstetrics unit in my electorate. We had actually secured this review back in 2010, when we saved Bentley maternity services for the first time. The closure had been slated due to a decision by the previous WA Labor government, and there was concern over whether the new Liberal state government would continue with Labor's policy. I ran a local campaign in my community to keep the maternity unit open which received a lot of support from local residents and, surprisingly, received support from Labor, who were the ones who initiated the closure in the first place.

The state Minister for Health, Kim Hames, to his credit, responded to the campaign and said that he would guarantee the future of Bentley obstetrics until the new Fiona Stanley Hospital opened, at which time a review would be undertaken to see if services were still needed. One thousand births per year was set as a threshold for a viable service that could continue. Bentley at around that time was at about 890 births, and the thinking was that the new Fiona Stanley Hospital would reduce demand further. In fact, the opposite has happened. Following the opening of Fiona Stanley, the number of births recorded at Bentley for 2014 was 1,045, and the Bentley maternity unit safely delivered 1,060 babies in 2015.

So when the report was released on 9 November many were surprised that the recommendation was that Bentley Hospital's maternity unit should be closed. The recommendation was made by obstetrician Professor Con Michael on the grounds of safety, which the minister went on to say he did not agree with. The same day the report was released, I contacted the minister, Kim Hames, to express my concern over its content, and we had a back-and-forth discussion about keeping the maternity unit open. A couple of days later the government seemed to indicate that the report would be accepted and Bentley would close, but we did not give up at that point.

On 28 January I held a meeting in my electorate office with the Bentley Community Advisory Council about the closure. They informed me that the proposed date services would cease was 27 June 2016. The attendees, Colin Stevenson and Linda Beresford, were very passionate about the services at Bentley. They pointed out that the services look after mostly local people, people from culturally diverse backgrounds and many people who do not have access to public transport. One of the points I particularly agreed with was about the important role of the hospital in education and training future nurses and doctors. Students currently rotate around Bentley Hospital as part of their training and, with the new Curtin Medical School set to go ahead locally, thanks to this government, the presence of a local hospital is important. We also spoke about the recent occasions when Fiona Stanley Hospital maternity unit has gone onto 'bypass', sending patients to other hospitals because the demand exceeded the available beds. After the meeting we resolved to keep fighting to retain maternity services at Bentley.

I am pleased to say that on 6 March Kim Hames announced that the recommendation in the report would not be accepted and that the Bentley Health Service would continue to offer maternity services to the local community until at least mid-2018, subject to ongoing operational and cost efficiency reviews. After visiting the Bentley Health Service, as he has done with me on previous occasions, the minister acknowledged the service is strongly patronised and favoured by the local community, with the bulk of the births supported by GP obstetricians and experienced midwives. He said:

I have listened to a broad spectrum of the community and given the current pressures facing maternity services, it makes no sense to close Bentley Hospital at this time.

I thank the minister for listening to the community and listening to me as well and for helping save the maternity services once again, for the second time. I thank everyone in my electorate that has supported this campaign. The maternity hospital will continue to provide an important service to many local people, particularly those who are unable to access the Fiona Stanley Hospital because of the lack of direct transport. But we must not forget that this closure was first mooted by the WA state Labor government. I again thank the minister and the coalition state government, who have saved the Bentley maternity ward once again at the Bentley Hospital.