PREGNANT women in south-west Victoria's Portland region will be forced to travel more than an hour to either Hamilton or Warrnambool to give birth after maternity services were suspended at the local hospital.

Doctors at Portland District Health (PDH) fear a decision to suspend birthing at the health service is just the tip of the iceberg in an effort to cut services.

Portland District Health maternity services will close for at least three months, it said in a statement on Thursday, due to a shortage of midwives – however, will continue to provide services for antenatal clinics, birthing classes and domiciliary care during this time.

This change will affect 10 women due to give birth in the next two to three weeks and 21 women who were scheduled to give birth at PDH in the next three months.

An ongoing dispute has involved the Department of Health, the hospital board and local doctors over the future of the Portland Hospital, largely attributed to funding and staffing issues.

Seven specialists at Portland District Health, backed by five local GPs, wrote an open letter in February, hitting out at its board and the Health Department, accusing them of endangering lives, and the future of the hospital, by ignoring longstanding requests for more staff and upgraded facilities.

The PDH’s ophthalmologist, Dr Robert Harvey, has also resigned, leaving ten patients still to be operated on, however, he’d been in talks with PDH to continue operating as a Visiting Medical Officer on a fee-for-service basis.

Dr Harvey was among the most vocal of the doctors who signed the letter.

“A tyranny of secrecy,” was how one of the specialists expressed their frustration at what has been going on.

The doctors’ concerns echo those expressed in the Portland Observer in recent months after several new board members, all living out of the region, were appointed by health minister Martin Foley.

The doctors are also angry with the treatment chief executive, Christine Giles has received, who say she has been sidelined after working tirelessly throughout the first 15 months or so of the pandemic and for ensuring PDH got the overall services it needed, especially obstetrics.

Ms Giles has been on leave for several months.

There are also fears that PDH would become an outpost of Warrnambool-based South West Healthcare.

 A Victorian Government spokesman said, “there are no plans for amalgamation”.

Western District Health Service (WDHS) chief executive, Rohan Fitzgerald said WDHS will be assisting women from the Glenelg Shire to give birth in the coming months.

“WDHS is pleased to be able to support women across the Southwest, including patients from Portland and the Glenelg Shire, to give birth locally,” he said.

“The experienced midwifery team at WDHS will be working with women from Portland and surrounds to assess their needs and ensure they receive the best available maternity care.

“At this stage it is difficult to know how many women from Portland will access WDHS to give birth.

“Families will be able to choose which model best suits their needs. 

“There are a range of factors women will consider when making a decision, this includes the ability to have their partner stay overnight with them, the rapport they develop with the midwifery team and any complicating factors that need to be addressed.

“WDHS has supported around 15 women from the Glenelg region to give birth at Hamilton Base Hospital in recent years.”

South West Healthcare (SWH) is one option for mothers looking to give birth outside of Portland and will be assisting parents across the region during this period to deliver babies that cannot be delivered at PDH.

SWH chief executive, Craig Fraser said “it is not necessarily the closest, but we are happy to help in any way we can.”

“The ultimate choice regarding transfer of care from PDH comes down to the parents and the medical team supporting the mother and child to determine where is best to birth.

“Families who need to travel to SWH are supported in a range of ways including accommodation at Rotary House if needed.

“Whilst we are still working out the particulars, our aim is to engage parents in their local community though some local services offered through Portland District Health or via telehealth.

SWH already assists a number of women from Portland and the surrounding area with maternity services each year - last year there were 57 babies from the Glenelg shire born at South West Healthcare.

Mr Fraser said that it is worth noting that SWH had 56 babies born last month alone within its service, which averages 60-65 births a month.

“Portland District Health usually deliver 70-80 babies a year, so over a three-month period we would therefore only predict to see an additional 15-20 births at our service, if they all came to SWH,” he said.

“We will be working with the Portland team to ensure we plan for people who will be choosing to deliver in Warrnambool, in combination with ensuring we have additional staff where needed.

“SWH accepts women whose babies can be delivered at 34 weeks or more for birth.

“If a woman sits outside of this timeframe or needs to be transferred for medical reasons then the state-wide referral service (PIPER) will find a hospital in Geelong or Melbourne.

“SWH also operate the Camperdown Hospital which is a birthing hospital and gives us additional resources to draw from if needed across the region.

SWH has accepted referrals from Portland for a range of services for many years and work together with all its regional counterparts to provide healthcare and services across the region including dental, ED, mental health and allied health. “This has been the case for some time,” Mr Fraser said.

“Our aim is to always see people receive best care close to home and we manage this as best we can.”

PDH are working to recruit more midwives to allow birthing services to safely recommence.

However, among the concerns raised in by PDH specialists and doctors, is that management have not been allowed to advertise for much-needed permanent staff and instead expensive locums are hired.

Obstetrics is just one of the areas they are seeking extra staff, the others being general medicine, general surgery, anaesthetics, ophthalmology, along with the need for a full emergency department (instead of the present urgent care centre) and enhanced allied health services.

The Health Department supported a request to recruit a general surgeon and general physician.

Portland doctors say this was relayed to the PDH board at a meeting in February, but that the request did not include a sought after third anaesthetist.

One doctor said, “the board are about to find out how hard it is to recruit doctors into regional Victoria”.