Our Birth, Our Voice organiser Tessa Czislowski gives an update on the fight for better maternity health services in Top End

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to mix one O four nine's three
sixty Now if you want to call through this morning
eight nine four one one oh four nine, you can
send us a message as well. Zero four double nine
seven double one three six zero. Now, as we just
discussed with the Chief Minister, we know the Our Birth,
Our Voice, a community led forum for women to share
their stories about what families need from maternity services in

(00:23):
the Northern Territory, was held over the weekend and not
just women attending families, health professionals joining us on the
line to talk more about how it all went. One
of the organizers, Tessa Sislosky, joins me on the line.
Good morning to you, Tessa.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning Katie.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
How are you going to think were really well? Tessa?
How did it go on the weekend? Talk us through
who was there and what you heard.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
We had a really impressive turnout, Katie. We had over
one hundred people, including our special guests, if I can
call them that, And I'd really like to thank the
politicians who joined us. Luke Goslin flew back from Canberra
especially to attend the event. We had Joe Hersey on
behalf of the Health Minister there and Clinton Howe also

(01:09):
from the CLP Selena Uber, Leader of the Opposition kat McNamara,
and we also had the Chief Executive Officer of Anti
Health Chris Hosking, and various other rd H executives. So
it was a really really wonderful turnout. And along with
that we had lots of mums and families and healthcare

(01:29):
workers as well well well.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And they're the ones that you really are wanting to
hear from, and they're the ones that all of those
politicians really need to be hearing. Tessa, what exactly did
they hear on the.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Weekend, So, Katie, they heard from a number of mums
who shared their stories and some of those stories were
really traumatic and heartbreaking, and I think it touched on
everybody to hear those stories from the mums themselves. So
there was discussion about obviously the ongoing issues that are

(02:03):
faced at RDH in terms of staffing and resources, and
in particular a couple of really key crucial messages that
came through is perinatal mental health support is really lacking
and basically there's just nowhere for mums to go if
they need to be readmitted for mental health support after
having their baby. There's confusion about whether they should be

(02:24):
admitted to Cality ward where they can't take their baby.
Their baby has to be taken from them, or whether
they get admitted back to the Jabbaru ward where their
baby can stay. But there apparently is some confusion about
how long that can be in place. For mums are
being told that they need to discharge after six weeks,
so if it's after that point in time, there's just
nowhere for them to go. So that was really concerning.

(02:46):
And also the bereathement care for mothers who suffered infant loss. Again,
it just really highlighted that the resources and support services
are lacking and such a crucial and traumatic timete and
that people carry that trauma with them forever through to
their future birth. That's right forever, but you know, for
their future pregnant season birth. So absolutely, I really hope

(03:11):
that hearing those stories from those mums that are affected,
you know, we will drive some change there.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I hope so. And you know, I take my hat
off to all of you ladies that are really driving this.
I know that I believe you are going to make
a difference. You know, I think that when you're standing
up and you're making sure that your voices are heard,
and you're making sure that those stories, even though they're
incredibly painful. I would imagine for a number of those

(03:39):
women sharing them, you know that they're showing that bravery
to stand up and tell those stories so that our
politicians do here so that we can enforce some change.
I mean, Tessa, from your perspective, were there some positives
to come out of the event in terms of those
discussions with the federal and Northern Territory Health counterpart, There.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Were some positives, Katie. One of those positives was that
we did here that there is the money coming from
the federal government. The amount remains in dispute, and we
have spoken after the event to Luke Gosling and he
has reiterated to us that there is still information outstanding
from nt Health. So we're really hopeful that having been

(04:23):
there on Saturday and heard some of these stories, anti
Health can provide the information that is outstanding. But regardless
of that, we are definitely going to get some money.
It's just a question of how much and then what
we can do with that. And the other positive was
that Chris Hoskin did confirm that mcgrad Nichols, who were
the receivers and managers of health Scope, have confirmed that

(04:44):
NT Health will have a seat at the table with
negotiating with any prospective purchaser to talk about reinstating private
maternity services. But I think the other side of that, Katie,
is that what we really heard was that rdi H
is in crisis. IDH maternity services are in crisis, and
a really significant issue is staffing and if that doesn't change,

(05:07):
if the culture at RDH doesn't change, and we heard
that there's a really negative, toxic workplace culture there, and
we heard it from a number of people, including Cacaptcha
couldn't join us, unfortunately she was unwell, but she sent
through her speech and that was read out by another
midwife that if that doesn't change, it doesn't matter how
much money we get from the federal government, because if

(05:29):
we can't recruit and retain midwives to staff the facility,
we're going to be in the same situation. And it's
seemingly getting worse, not better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Well, look, we're going to catch up with Cath Hatcher
as well in just a couple of minutes time, so
we'll see what else we can find out. Tessa. I
understand there was also some discussion and continues to be
around defense families and the impact that the closure of
the private private hospital Ward maternity Services that it's having
for some of those defense families. Is that right, That's.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Right, Katie. There was one of our speakers is a
defense with a defense wife and she they're about to
actually post out of Darwin too so that they can
have their third baby because of the closure of the
private hospital. She had a really really negative experience with
ARDIH with her first baby. The trauma of that means
that she just can't bring herself to represent at Ardie

(06:23):
H to have her third baby, shadow second at the
private There's a survey that we've put out to Defense
force families and it's still open, so i'd really encourage
any defense families that are listening. If you see that survey,
if it comes across your email or social media, please
please complete it because it's really important. But a lot
of the messages that we're getting through that survey that

(06:44):
families are opting to post out or alternatively to not
post to Darwin because of the lack of birth choice
options available to them, obviously arising out of the closure
of DPH and then the under resourcing at Ardie H had.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
One of those mums stand up and say that.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yep, literally had someone stand up and say that on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, that's a real concern. I mean that's a worry
in a lot of different ways. But when you look
at the Northern Territory, when you look at Darwin as
being a capital city, we're wanting to try and entice
people to move here, not just defense families, but I
genuinely believe that this has an impact on where the
people will move here, and particularly if they're looking at
having babies.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I agree Katie, and I think when you look at
what continuity of care models are available for mums, obviously
private and stetric care was one of those, a big
one of those, and that's now gone. We've got our
MGP program and our home birth program, which everything that
we heard on Saturday and then the lead up to
Saturday is it is at a state of collapse. It

(07:45):
is falling apart because of lack of continuity of staffing.
That a lot of those positions are filled with agency staff,
which defeats the purpose of continuity of care because they're
not permanent staff and so if you're looking for continuity
of care, they're your options that are on the table
and they're being stripped away. So I agree. I think
in terms of attracting people to come and live in

(08:08):
Darwin and in the Northern Territory, it's crucial. Otherwise we're
going to lose a cohort of young families who would
be looking to move here. We just won't attract those people.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Say so from your perspective, what are the next steps?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
So we've got meetings set up with a number of
politicians this week and hopefully next Katie, So we're going
to really be driving for obviously the federal funding and
speaking with both Luke and the territory government as well
about okay, what do we need to do to get
on the same page. And I heard lies say, you know,

(08:43):
a territory approach and I agree with that. We all
need to be on the same page with this. So
we just need to make it happen. As a group.
We are sick of hearing you know, we're waiting for
this or people haven't provided this information. We just need
to drive this forward. We're going to meet with both
Luke and whether it's Anty Health or the Health Minister

(09:05):
or the Chief Minister, whoever we need to meet with
within anti government to progress that. The other things that
we're going to be driving having heard about these issues
about staffing is how do we address that because RDIH,
the RDH executives are indicating that they're unaware of these issues,
which is very surprising. So I don't know whether they

(09:27):
need to put out a survey for their staff. I'm
loath to say engage a consultant because I know funding
is so tight, but whether they need to engage somebody
who's outside of Anti health, outside of RDH to come
in and speak to the staff and get to the
bottom of what this problem is. That that's going to

(09:47):
be something else that we're going to be exploring in
the next few weeks, and obviously just keeping on trying
to get the message out there that things need to
improve and there needs to be some short term improvements
with I've got these plans for potentially building a new hospital,
which is going to be a long way down the track,
co locating of women's and children's services, all of those things,

(10:09):
which is all fantastic, but those plans are still very
much in the planning phase. There needs to be some
changes that are made right now in the short term
to improve services, and that's kind of what our focus
is going to be going forward in the next couple
of months.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, Tessa, really appreciate your time this morning keeping contact
with us. Let us know what you hear. We're going
to continue to talk about this. We've just been sent
a statement as well from Steve Edgington and one from
Luke Gosling, so we will continue the discussion. I really
appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining that.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Thank you, Katie, and thank you for continuing to give
this issue airtime. It's such an important one.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
We really really appreciate it anytime. Thank you, Tessa.