FIVE HOUR DRIVE FOR BIRTH

Public hospitals in Australia's largest city all full

An expectant mother was forced to make a five-hour, 280km ambulance relay from Windsor to Canberra yesterday because there were no beds to care for a premature baby in NSW. She was loaded into an ambulance at 5.25am, beginning a trip that lasted into the morning. Stops were made at Narellan, Bowral and Goulburn before the ambulance arrived at Canberra Hospital at 10.20am.

Mr Goodier said that during the trip he feared for Natalie's life and thought his son would end up being born on the side of the Hume Highway. He said he thought Ms Brown would be taken to any one of Penrith, Liverpool or Westmead hospitals to give birth. "When the nurse said that Canberra was where we were going, I thought she was joking," he said. "I just did not believe it, I did not think it was for real." Mr Goodier said the NSW health system had let his family down. "It needs a lot of looking at, and a lot of work," he said. "It's upside down."

While the couple were transferred from one ambulance to the other, a casual nurse who accompanied them had to find her own way back to Sydney. "It's pretty hard to smile," Ms Brown said, struggling with pain, after settling in her Canberra hospital bed.

Mr Goodier, had just finished a shift at a restaurant in the bowling club at Baulkham Hills when Ms Brown told him she was in pain. He will stay in Canberra until Ms Brown has the baby - another boy. The boy will be the couple's third premature child. Mr Goodier will return to Sydney after the birth to retrieve his children, before returning to Canberra.

Hospitals whose neonatal intensive care units were on code red and unable to take more patients included John Hunter in Newcastle, Nepean in Penrith, Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick and Royal North Shore Hospital. Those on amber included the Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney Children's at Randwick, Liverpool hospital, Royal Prince Alfred, Westmead and Canberra.

Professor Henderson-Smart, director of the NSW pregnancy and newborn services network said yesterday: "The best place for the mother and the baby to be was Canberra because they had facility to look after the baby. The NSW Ambulance Service said only three ambulances were used in a relay from Windsor to Canberra.

Ms Brown's father Tony, who contracted Mike Carlton's 2UE radio program yesterday morning, said he went "ballistic" after hearing there was no hospital in NSW to care for his daughter. "We are the biggest city in Australia and yet we can't find facilities to deliver a baby," he said.

Dr John Gullotta, president of AMA NSW said there should be more neonatal intensive care beds in the Sydney metropolitan area. Mr Goodier said Health Minister Morris Iemma had apologised for what the young couple had been through. Mr Iemma yesterday commissioned an expert review into the case and flagged an increase in funding in the next state budget for more neonatal intensive care beds.

Source

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