Health New Zealand is proposing to cut beds from Wellington Hospital's maternity and gynecology wards and re-allocate them for emergency department patients. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Midwives and specialists are begging Health New Zealand to abandon a proposal to cut beds from Wellington Hospital's maternity and gynecology wards.
In what's being described as an emotional meeting at the hospital, staff and community midwives on Monday told the agency not to go ahead with a four month trial that would re-allocate 12 beds to create a medical ward for patients from the over-crowded emergency department.
Health NZ has been approached for comment following yesterday's meeting.
It has previously said it expected the same number of patients could be cared for once the changes were in place and that occupancy figures showed maternity often had unused beds.
But staff maintained the wards are often at capacity.
Independent midwife (LMC) and Wellington chair of the College of Midwives Suzi Hume said more than 100 people showed up in person and online at Monday's meeting to oppose the trial - slated to start next month.
She said the message to management was a resounding "you cannot do this" with people queuing for the microphone.
Hume said teams from Lower Hutt also attended as they would be affected under the current proposal.
"Part of the escalation plan if we get bed blocked (in Wellington) is to send people out to the Hutt - that has already happened without this."
She said there was huge sympathy for colleagues working under extreme pressure in an overcrowded emergency department but said cutting beds from gynaecology and maternity was not the solution.
She said management had failed to understand how the maternity wards worked - which was a focus of a lot of discussion at the meeting.
"We run like an ED too, we run an acute service. People come in directly from the community directly into our service as well.
"We don't know what's going to happen overnight, who's going to be walking through the doors, or in the day, and we have to be ready - have to have spare beds available for whatever arises."
An obstetrician who was there, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said the proposal had come completely out of the blue.
She said the discusion was robust, but was surprised by its civility given the "enormity of the changes".
"A lot of very emotional people because we believe really strongly in this - that this is the wrong move for the hospital.
"Everyone is already extremely under the pump - particularly the midwives - you can see day-to-day how they're struggling."
She said the maternity wards were already at capacity and she was worried the trial would compromise the hospital's ability to accept transfers from outside the region.
"I was on call last week and I accepted two women for transfer who were both less than 24 hours after C-section (cesarean) ,whose babies were being managed in our neonatal unit, who were seriously unwell, and I don't know where those women would go if this change was brought in and we didn't have beds to accomodate them."
The obstetrician said Health NZ stressed to those at the meeting that the trial was just a proposal and she said there appeared to be room for negotiation.
In response to RNZ's questions, Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government was committed to timely, quality healthcare for everyone, including pregnant women.
"I am advised that Health NZ will be working closely with their staff on these changes and that during this trial period, Wellington Regional Hospital will continue to provide high-quality care to the same number of obstetrics and gynaecology patients."
Brown has previous said Wellington's ED was "one of the poorest performing in the country, with outdated infrastructure that is no longer fit for purpose".
"The current layout is contributing to long wait times and people leaving without receiving care," he said.
The Government has revealed more details about a major upgrade at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation said figures obtained under the Official Information Act showed the gynaecology ward, which would lose beds in the trial, was short-staffed for more than a quarter of all shifts.
Union delegate Michelle Cotton said safe-staffing levels from January to October last year showed the ward did not have enough nurses for 27 percent of all shifts.
She said the organisation thought the government's six-hour wait time target for emergency departments was the motivation for the trial.
HNZ told RNZ on Monday "this type of 'flex' was not unusual and makes the most of existing infrastructure, as in this case."
Capital Coast and Hutt Valley director of operations Jamie Duncan said as the safety and quality of care for all patients remains paramount, we will monitor the trial for any impact and act accordingly."
Maternity and medical patients would not be sharing pods or staff, which mitigated the "potential security risk", he said.
"We are confident the same number of women will be cared for in gynaecology and maternity during the trial."
There was often high demand for medical inpatient beds, particularly in winter, and hospitals often used different clinical spaces in the hospital, he said.
RNZ has asked HNZ for reponse following yesterday's meeting.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
