Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We just got up with Tessa Sizlowski, one of the
mums who helped to organize the forum over the weekend,
Our Birth, Our Voice, where they spoke about a number
of issues that are being experienced at the moment when
it comes to maternity services. Now joining me on the
line is Kath Hatcher from the Nursing and Midwiffree Union
here in the Northern Territory. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Cav Ah, Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Now, Kath, I understand you will crook on the weekend
as so many of us are and weren't able to attend,
but you did have a statement read out on your behalf.
What are the main concerns you've got at the moment
when it comes to maternity services across the territory.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
That they need to have a big review and a
big overhaul and the changes that they made approximately seven
years ago were not for the better. They thought that
it would be for the better facilitating the women and
looking after the higher risk women, but it hasn't been.
(01:03):
It has been not a good change and it needs
to go back to how it was before, not completely,
but the women that are low risk, medium risk, high risks.
They all need to be looked after. And more so,
(01:25):
to be able to facilitate more women to use the
birth center, we need to be able to have a
continuity of care model to facilitate that, like it was
seven years plus ago. What they think they're going to
implement in staffing the birth center with permanent staff, that's
(01:49):
their new proposal. I don't think that's going to work.
And I've talked to other midwives over the weekend and
this morning and they've said that it's not going to work.
The midwives that are looking after the high risk women
(02:09):
in their continuitive care midw free group practice teams, they
would benefit from a team approach to be able to
have midwar free care, but also obstetric care, and all
of those women that are usually higher risks usually need
to be birthing in delivery suite in the high risk
(02:32):
unit and also need to maybe facilitate their birth through
the theater as well with cesareans. So they proposed to
at the moment is not from the women from the
sorry from the midwives that are currently working in that
area and also on the maternity services, they say that
(02:56):
that kind of proposal is not going to work.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So that proposal is not going to work. I mean,
kas if they implement what they are proposing, what is
going like, what is the reaction going to be from
those nurses and midwives and what kind of risk do
you think we could have.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, one, we need to be able to find the
staff or we saying the Department of Health roll dal
and hospital needs to find the staff. But also they
need to have that experience of not new grads and
not novice midwives. They need to have some experience. They
need to have the education to be able to support
(03:41):
women to labor and birth through the birth center. That's
going to be their one hurdle. But are they going
to work shift work? That's what I hear that they
are going to work shift work. And if they don't
(04:03):
have anyone that's in labor or you know, laboring or
having a baby, then that shift is potentially they go
and help out in delivery suite or in maternity ward.
And it seems to be a not a waste of
staff time, but a waste of you know, allocation and
(04:26):
where they maybe be on call. I'm not sure how
the finer details are going to be. But from the
midwives perspective, They don't think it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Tas I know you have said, there needs to be
a big review, There needs to be a big overhaul
a staff. How is staff feeling at the moment? Are
they upset? Do they feel like there is not the
right kind of culture in the workplace? What's the go.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
With management looking at the mid of free group practice
and a restructure that's besides what they're looking at putting
staff into the birth center. So they're two different things.
So the restructure, everyone I speak to through the office
is I don't think it's going to work. The restructure,
(05:20):
the management and the support of management of staff that
are permanent here in Darwin and surrounding areas, they don't
feel they get the support they need. You know, they
need flexible working arrangements sometimes in their life due to
various things with young children or aging adult parents. They
(05:47):
you know, they might only be able to work a
couple of days a week and only certain time frame,
et cetera. All of those concerns. You know, they're saying,
oh no, we can't facilitate that here. But they can't
fulfill a full roster. So if they give the staff
what they want in rostering wise, they're still going to
(06:09):
have open spaces to be able to feel with casual
pool staff or agency they should be looking after. They're
very good at being able to recruit, but they're not
very good in the maternity services to retain staff. They
continually not getting what they need in their working environment,
(06:33):
whether it's rosters or the way they work, or their
satisfaction on how they work and to their scope of practice.
If they're not time after month after month not getting
that outcome and not getting what they need and what
they want, they're going to move to another area, whether
(06:54):
it's in the territory or interstate, and they can get
that somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Before I let you go this morning, Kath, I do
just want to as well ask you about the controversial
Acacia patient record system. It's set to return to Royal
dah And Hospital's emergency department next month. It's almost two
years after it was pulled due to safety concerns. Kath.
What a nurse is saying to you? Are they happy
that it's rerolling out or are they worried?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Actually, I haven't we as the office, haven't spoken to
any of the nurses or their concerns. I do know
that once all the hurdles through the rest of Royal
Darwin Hospital and the implementation of AKASHA and that roll
out and trying to learn a new system, that's all
sort of gone away, and they're using the service now.
(07:45):
They use the KASHA for their medical records, and they
use another system called Jkare Clinicals to look at pathology,
and they use another system called EMA which is all
their medications. So they've got three system them they need
to work on continuous through their out their day. I
(08:05):
hope that they've put the restructure and the implementation of
the changes that the ED were asking for two years ago.
I hope that that's they've done all those changes and
that I hope after the hurdles of implementing it back
into ED that's it will be a bit bumpy what
(08:26):
once the staff learn how to use it. But I'm
hoping it's going to be able to be continuously used
by both the nurses and doctors because the rest of
the hospital are utilizing it, and it would be easier
if the whole hospital was on the same system. But no,
(08:48):
I haven't heard anything at this stage.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, let us know if you do hopefully you know.
Hopefully it's much smoother than last time it rolled out.
Kas I really appreciate your time as always, Thank you
so much for having a chat with me this morning.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Are you welcome? Thank you, thank you, Thanks so much,
We just got up with Tessa Sizlowski, one of the
mums who helped to organize the forum over the weekend,
Our Birth, Our Voice, where they spoke about a number
of issues that are being experienced at the moment when
it comes to maternity services. Now joining me on the
line is Kath Hatcher from the Nursing and Midwiffree Union
here in the Northern Territory. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Cav Ah, Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Now, Kath, I understand you will crook on the weekend
as so many of us are and weren't able to attend,
but you did have a statement read out on your behalf.
What are the main concerns you've got at the moment
when it comes to maternity services across the territory.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
That they need to have a big review and a
big overhaul and the changes that they made approximately seven
years ago were not for the better. They thought that
it would be for the better facilitating the women and
looking after the higher risk women, but it hasn't been.
(01:03):
It has been not a good change and it needs
to go back to how it was before, not completely,
but the women that are low risk, medium risk, high risks.
They all need to be looked after. And more so,
(01:25):
to be able to facilitate more women to use the
birth center, we need to be able to have a
continuity of care model to facilitate that, like it was
seven years plus ago. What they think they're going to
implement in staffing the birth center with permanent staff, that's
(01:49):
their new proposal. I don't think that's going to work.
And I've talked to other midwives over the weekend and
this morning and they've said that it's not going to work.
The midwives that are looking after the high risk women
(02:09):
in their continuitive care midw free group practice teams, they
would benefit from a team approach to be able to
have midwar free care, but also obstetric care, and all
of those women that are usually higher risks usually need
to be birthing in delivery suite in the high risk
(02:32):
unit and also need to maybe facilitate their birth through
the theater as well with cesareans. So they proposed to
at the moment is not from the women from the
sorry from the midwives that are currently working in that
area and also on the maternity services, they say that
(02:56):
that kind of proposal is not going to work.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So that proposal is not going to work. I mean,
kas if they implement what they are proposing, what is
going like, what is the reaction going to be from
those nurses and midwives and what kind of risk do
you think we could have.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, one, we need to be able to find the
staff or we saying the Department of Health roll dal
and hospital needs to find the staff. But also they
need to have that experience of not new grads and
not novice midwives. They need to have some experience. They
need to have the education to be able to support
(03:41):
women to labor and birth through the birth center. That's
going to be their one hurdle. But are they going
to work shift work? That's what I hear that they
are going to work shift work. And if they don't
(04:03):
have anyone that's in labor or you know, laboring or
having a baby, then that shift is potentially they go
and help out in delivery suite or in maternity ward.
And it seems to be a not a waste of
staff time, but a waste of you know, allocation and
(04:26):
where they maybe be on call. I'm not sure how
the finer details are going to be. But from the
midwives perspective, They don't think it's going to work.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Tas I know you have said, there needs to be
a big review, There needs to be a big overhaul
a staff. How is staff feeling at the moment? Are
they upset? Do they feel like there is not the
right kind of culture in the workplace? What's the go.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
With management looking at the mid of free group practice
and a restructure that's besides what they're looking at putting
staff into the birth center. So they're two different things.
So the restructure, everyone I speak to through the office
is I don't think it's going to work. The restructure,
(05:20):
the management and the support of management of staff that
are permanent here in Darwin and surrounding areas, they don't
feel they get the support they need. You know, they
need flexible working arrangements sometimes in their life due to
various things with young children or aging adult parents. They
(05:47):
you know, they might only be able to work a
couple of days a week and only certain time frame,
et cetera. All of those concerns. You know, they're saying,
oh no, we can't facilitate that here. But they can't
fulfill a full roster. So if they give the staff
what they want in rostering wise, they're still going to
(06:09):
have open spaces to be able to feel with casual
pool staff or agency they should be looking after. They're
very good at being able to recruit, but they're not
very good in the maternity services to retain staff. They
continually not getting what they need in their working environment,
(06:33):
whether it's rosters or the way they work, or their
satisfaction on how they work and to their scope of practice.
If they're not time after month after month not getting
that outcome and not getting what they need and what
they want, they're going to move to another area, whether
(06:54):
it's in the territory or interstate, and they can get
that somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Before I let you go this morning, Kath, I do
just want to as well ask you about the controversial
Acacia patient record system. It's set to return to Royal
dah And Hospital's emergency department next month. It's almost two
years after it was pulled due to safety concerns. Kath.
What a nurse is saying to you? Are they happy
that it's rerolling out or are they worried?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Actually, I haven't we as the office, haven't spoken to
any of the nurses or their concerns. I do know
that once all the hurdles through the rest of Royal
Darwin Hospital and the implementation of AKASHA and that roll
out and trying to learn a new system, that's all
sort of gone away, and they're using the service now.
(07:45):
They use the KASHA for their medical records, and they
use another system called Jkare Clinicals to look at pathology,
and they use another system called EMA which is all
their medications. So they've got three system them they need
to work on continuous through their out their day. I
(08:05):
hope that they've put the restructure and the implementation of
the changes that the ED were asking for two years ago.
I hope that that's they've done all those changes and
that I hope after the hurdles of implementing it back
into ED that's it will be a bit bumpy what
(08:26):
once the staff learn how to use it. But I'm
hoping it's going to be able to be continuously used
by both the nurses and doctors because the rest of
the hospital are utilizing it, and it would be easier
if the whole hospital was on the same system. But no,
(08:48):
I haven't heard anything at this stage.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, let us know if you do hopefully you know.
Hopefully it's much smoother than last time it rolled out.
Kas I really appreciate your time as always, Thank you
so much for having a chat with me this morning.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Are you welcome? Thank you, thank you, Thanks so much,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!