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Speaker 1: Well. On Saturday, about one hundred people attended a forum

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Speaker 1: on maternity services in the Northern Territory, including moms, dads,

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Speaker 1: pregnant women, health professionals, and even grandparents. One of the

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Speaker 1: local moms involved, Tessa Sizlowski, joined me on the show

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Speaker 1: last week, saying it was a chance for everyone to

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Speaker 1: share their feedback and experiences which will eventually be presented

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Speaker 1: to the Northern Territory government. Now she joins me on

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Speaker 1: the line right now, Good morning to you, Tessa.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie. How are you? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really good now, Tessa, It's quite a large turnout by

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Speaker 1: the sounds of things.

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Speaker 2: So, yeah, it was, Katie, it was. We had a

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Speaker 2: real cross section of the community, which was absolutely wonderful.

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Speaker 2: Trying to gather mums on a Saturday in one location

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Speaker 2: is a fairly tough ask. So I think it just

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Speaker 2: speaks volumes about how important this issue is within the community.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. Now, what were some of

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Speaker 1: the concerns and the key issues that were raised?

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Speaker 2: So we had a number of concerns that were raised

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Speaker 2: mums and midwife and I apologize for the background, no wrong,

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Speaker 2: the one who is teething, As we had moms who

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Speaker 2: shared their stories, and there was sort of four really

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Speaker 2: key concerns that came through. One of them was the

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Speaker 2: reducing choices that birthing women in the Northern Territory have,

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Speaker 2: and you know, obviously we've spoken previously about the closure

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Speaker 2: of the private Maternity Ward, but also the review of MGP.

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Speaker 2: Women shared their stories from within the MGP program and

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Speaker 2: also the home birth program about the transient staffing issues

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Speaker 2: that they're experiencing and that you know, even though they're

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Speaker 2: within the home birth program, they haven't been able to

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Speaker 2: have their birth at home because the staff weren't available

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Speaker 2: on the day, and so it just seems like those

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Speaker 2: those choices are just being eroded more and more over time,

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Speaker 2: and women want choice. They want to be able to

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Speaker 2: choose the setting for them that's right for them, and

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Speaker 2: at the moment that just isn't isn't an option. The

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Speaker 2: second really key issue was around continuity of care. And

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Speaker 2: we know there's lots of research out there about that

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Speaker 2: continuity of care offers better outcomes for mums and babies,

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Speaker 2: and women again shared those stories about not having continuity

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Speaker 2: of care or even within the programs that should provide

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Speaker 2: continuity of care. That's that's not happening at the moment.

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Speaker 2: So and one of the practitioners that was or clinicians

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Speaker 2: that was in attendance provided us with some feedback about

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Speaker 2: continuity and what she said that, you know, continuity means

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Speaker 2: that that clinical clinicians or midwives won't delay those problems

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Speaker 2: that they might be experiencing over until tomorrow because ultimately

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Speaker 2: it's their responsibility and that patient remains with them, so

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Speaker 2: they address it, you know then and there, Whereas the

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Speaker 2: lack of continuity means that things can be delayed and

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Speaker 2: pushed back for somebody else to deal with and ultimately

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Speaker 2: it means less responsibility for patient outcomes. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's really key. Yeah, it went and I think it

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Speaker 2: was felt keenly within the room that women felt that,

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Speaker 2: you know, their issues were being pushed, pushed over or

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Speaker 2: delayed and whether that was because of a lack of

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Speaker 2: resourcing or a lack of staffing on the on the day,

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Speaker 2: there were lots of stories around that. So I think

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Speaker 2: continuity of care is a really really key key point

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Speaker 2: that came out of the forum on Saturday.

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Speaker 1: So, Tessa, I mean, look, we're too from here with

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Speaker 1: the issues that have been raised. I know last time

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Speaker 1: you and I spoke, you said that eventually, you know,

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Speaker 1: they will be presented to the Northern Territory government. But

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Speaker 1: you know, based on those discussions that we had on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: where do you think this should go next and what

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Speaker 1: are the next steps?

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Speaker 2: So next STEP's Katie. We're going to have another forum

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Speaker 2: on the first of November and that's going to be

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Speaker 2: open to politicians and media and we're really encouraguraging politicians

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Speaker 2: to come along and to listen to what people have

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Speaker 2: to say. We've already set up a meeting with RDIH

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Speaker 2: management to talk to them and provide them with some feedback,

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Speaker 2: but also to see how we can partner with them

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Speaker 2: to work through some of these really fundamental issues. Staffing

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Speaker 2: and support is another issue that came up, lack of resourcing.

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Speaker 2: We've heard about the midwives leaving the territory because they've

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Speaker 2: got lack of permanent positions and those sorts of things.

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Speaker 2: So we've also reached out to the union and going

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Speaker 2: to arrange a meeting with them to talk to them

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Speaker 2: about you know, what advocacy work we can do to

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Speaker 2: help them advocate for better conditions for midwives. In the territory.

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Speaker 2: And then the final thing that we're really asking for

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Speaker 2: the government to implement fairly promptly is to establish a

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Speaker 2: sort of form or a community voice where consumers, mums

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Speaker 2: and other people in the community effectively have a seat

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Speaker 2: at the table when they're making decisions about changes to

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Speaker 2: maternity services. We know the MGP programs under review. As

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Speaker 2: far as we are aware, there has been no consumer

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Speaker 2: consultation about those proposed changes at all. And that was

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Speaker 2: another thing that came out on Saturday, was just a

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Speaker 2: real lack of transparency when they're making changes to programs

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Speaker 2: and things within the system, there's just no consultation Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well to the people that they're going to impact.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, and so people are left in the dark and

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Speaker 2: then they wonder why mons don't, you know, are disappointed

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Speaker 2: or dissatisfied with the services that they're receiving. It's because

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Speaker 2: they haven't been consulted about what that actually means.

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Speaker 1: For yeah, Tessa. In terms of we also know, of

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Speaker 1: course that the Northern Territory government had written to the

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth Government seeking funding for infrastructure upgrades. Was that something

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Speaker 1: that attendees thought was an issue or think would be

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Speaker 1: beneficial look.

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Speaker 2: There was certainly some feedback about the state of the

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Speaker 2: maternity water, the birth suites up at level six at

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Speaker 2: Ardi H, and undoubtedly there needs to be some improvements,

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Speaker 2: but a lot of the feedback was around we've got

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Speaker 2: that beautiful birth center down on the ground floor which

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Speaker 2: is being completely underutilized, and that really we need to

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Speaker 2: be focusing on getting the staff so that that birth

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Speaker 2: center can be operational. Again. We heard from some of

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Speaker 2: the people who were involved in advocating for that when

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Speaker 2: it was first constructed and about I think it was

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Speaker 2: up until about twenty and eighteen or twenty nineteen it

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Speaker 2: was being used really, really frequently, and then there were

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Speaker 2: some changes made at Ardi H and since then it's

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Speaker 2: really not being used for birthing very often at all.

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Speaker 2: There have been some berths there, but there's sort of

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Speaker 2: few and far between and staffing dependents. So I think

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Speaker 2: the feedback was yes, definitely we need some infrastructure upgrades

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Speaker 2: at Ardi H, and I don't think you would get

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Speaker 2: any argument from even the minister about that. But we've

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Speaker 2: also got facilities downstairs that could be utilized straight away.

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Speaker 2: Of course, the Palmerston Hospital which has a maternity ward

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Speaker 2: or birthing suite there that have not been used at all.

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Speaker 2: So I think the general consensus was that we need

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Speaker 2: to get some of these other things right first. There

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Speaker 2: are quick effects. We've got the res or the infrastructure

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Speaker 2: available to us, we just can't start it at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Well, Tessa, look, you know, you wonderful ladies have really

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Speaker 1: done your best to make sure that your voices are

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Speaker 1: heard in this space. I think it's really important that

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Speaker 1: advocacy that is happening and trying to you know, enable

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Speaker 1: other women's voices and family members, husbands, grandparents, even their

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Speaker 1: staff to have their voices heard when it comes to

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Speaker 1: some of those concerns. So please continue to keep us

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Speaker 1: up to date. You know, we will make sure we

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Speaker 1: get you on before the first of November, I think

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Speaker 1: you said for the next event, but also after you

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Speaker 1: hold those meetings. Would be really keen to you to

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Speaker 1: get those updates.

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Speaker 2: Thanks, Katie, and I'll be sure to keep you and

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Speaker 2: the listeners updated. And let's hope that having now had

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Speaker 2: a hundred different people kind of come along and off

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Speaker 2: the their views, the government actually start to take this

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Speaker 2: issue really seriously.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, Well, Tessa, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: your time and I hope, hope you're going okay with

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Speaker 1: you but with your teething baby. Oh it's a hard time.

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Speaker 2: It will pass, Katie, thank you, it will.

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Speaker 1: Oh lovely to speak to you. Thanks so much. Tessa