Health funding promises are starting to flow like water, but there’s still a drought for rural women.
The 80,000 women who give birth in Australia’s rural and regional towns each year are missing out on pre-election cash splashes, according to rural GP college ACRRM.
College president Dr Rod Martin has now publicly called for greater support for rural maternity services from both major parties, including a commitment to stop closures, targeted funding to attract the rural maternity workforce and an intergovernmental committee to ensure the continuity of those services at risk of closure.
As of 2023, an estimated 150 rural maternity units had closed since 2000, with many others downgraded.
None of the current commitments around women’s healthcare are likely to improve the situation, according to Dr Martin.
The departure of a maternity service can often threaten the stability of an entire town.
“Not to be able to birth in your community has a high social cost, and it’s a dislocative experience,” National Rural Health Commissioner Professor Jenny May told The Medical Republic earlier this year.
A consensus framework for the delivery of rural maternity services is reportedly in the works, even as outer metropolitan services and some private services begin to shutter also.
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“I know that [maternity] providers are equally passionate on wanting those services to be available and to be supported in rural and remote, but it is also fair to say that the challenges in delivering maternity services are not just rural,” Professor May said.
ACRRM’s preferred solution would be to properly integrate rural generalists with advanced training in obstetrics and anaesthetics into rural services, which Dr Martin said had recently been successfully pulled off in remote far north Queensland.
“By incorporating [rural generalists] with obstetric and anaesthetic training, the [Weipa, Mapoon, Napranum, and Aurukun] service has enabled more mothers to give birth closer to home, improving outcomes and reducing the disruption of leaving their communities for care,” Dr Martin said.
“This model puts the health of women, babies, and families in rural and remote communities at the forefront.”
While there have been no funding promises to address rural maternity unit closures as a whole so far this election cycle, Health Minister Mark Butler has committed $10 million to the NSW state government for public hospitals in the Central Coast.
It follows private provider Healthe Care’s decision to withdraw maternity services from the Gosford Private Hospital.
Keep up with the latest promises, asks and gaffes at TMR’s election hub.
