MORE than 100 expectant mums faced having to give birth in Melbourne rather than Wodonga after fallout from baby deaths at another Victorian hospital engulfed the Border’s health service.
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That followed an investigation in 2016 into avoidable baby deaths at Bacchus Marsh hospital west of Melbourne.
Ms Melville said a related statewide review resulted in Wodonga being advised “sorry you don’t meet” new standards.
She said Albury Wodonga Health was told “you don’t have a paediatrician on-site 24/7, you don’t have an anaesthetist on site 24/7”.
“If they had reduced our level from Level 5 to Level 4, which they were going to do, it would mean as a woman if you delivered a baby at Level 5 we can keep you and deliver your baby safely at 32 weeks of pregnancy,” Ms Melville said.
“If we had lost that justification we wouldn’t have been able to keep a baby until it was 34 weeks old.
“That meant about 115 women in labour having to go down the Hume Highway by air, by ambulance, by car to have a baby because we couldn’t hold that classification.”
Ms Melville said $1 million had been spent on accommodation to ensure a paediatric registrar and anaesthetist could be at Wodonga hospital around-the-clock.
Her comments were made to a Wodonga Ratepayers’ Association forum on Tuesday night.
The veteran health administrator said the eventual shift of maternity services from Wodonga to Albury hospital was based on mothers and babies being able to have greater back-up services such as an ICU and heart expertise.
The volume of work at Wodonga hospital means up to 60 operations are being done each day.
Keyhole surgery is lifting operations but reducing related overnight stays.
A new emergency department at Albury will cater to 60,000 cases annually, both Border casualty wards attend about 60,000 now.
