Warding off crisis

By Kath Gannaway
THE immediate survival of Healesville Hospital’s maternity ward rests firmly in the hands of two local doctors.
Survival in the long-term, according to Dr Pieter Mourik, spokesman for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, rests with governments.
As pregnant women campaigned last week against the closing of Rosebud Hospital’s maternity ward – the latest in a decade of closures under both the Kennett and the Bracks governments – Dr Peter Carruthers and Dr Peter Rogers were hailed as heroes by Dr Mourik.
They are the only two GP obstetricians still delivering babies at Healesville Hospital.
“They will be working excessive and unsociable hours. If one takes a holiday or takes ill the other will be on call because you just cannot get people to cover you,” Dr Mourik said.
“You cannot attract younger doctors, it’s too onerous. The risk of being sued is too high and it’s not family friendly.
“These guys are heroes,” he added.
“But they can’t do it forever and what we have to do is somehow make the government wake up to the seriousness of this.
Drs Rogers and Carruthers say while they enjoy their obstetrics work, it’s only a matter of time before women in Healesville, Marysville and the Upper Yarra have no choice but to deliver their babies up to one and a half hours away at either Box Hill or Ferntree Gully hospitals.
“I think a lot of the professional expectations of medical graduates have changed,” Dr Rogers said.
“They no longer feel 120 per cent committed to providing medical services. They want to have a life themselves.”
Dr Rogers said he will stop when Dr Carruthers stops.
“It’s just a matter of time. I can see myself going for another five or 10 years. We both have families and, basically, you can’t do it by yourself.”
When their practice, Healesville Medical Centre, advertised last year for a doctor to do obstetrics they got no response.
Dr Mourik estimates the number of GPs delivering babies as probably 10 per cent of what it was 20 years ago. The answer, he says, is simply to train a lot more people.
“If you made it financially attractive young people would do it but everyone says it’s not our problem,” he said.
“The state says it’s not our problem because the fees are set by the Federal Government while the Federal Government says the State is running health.
“It’s all cost shifting and nothing gets done.”
Dr Rogers would like to see the law changed to a no-fault insurance model to remove one of the obstacles for young doctors.
Like Dr Mourik, he also believes public pressure is needed to effect change.
“The status quo will remain until things get so desperate that there are no country obstetricians,” he said.
“When people have to drive three hours to a delivery ward they will be asking what can be done to fix it, but in 10 years it will be too late.
“You just won’t have the people who have done the training,” Dr Rogers warned.
Dr Mourik said an article he wrote 10 years ago asking “who will deliver the next generation” is even more relevant today.
“The only reason women in Healesville can deliver their babies in their own hospital is because of the altruism, dedication and bloody hard work of those two doctors.
“There’s no guarantee of succession and that’s the tragedy,” he said.
“There is no succession plan.”