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Speaker 1: Last week is Parliament sat the opposition well, they raised

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Speaker 1: a matter of public importance and also asked a number

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Speaker 1: of questions of the government around maternity services in the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory. Now, one of the questions which really peaked

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Speaker 1: our interest was when Chancey Paike stood in ask Steve Edgington,

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Speaker 1: the Minister for Health, if women were giving birth without

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Speaker 1: air conditioning. Now joining us on the line is Tessa

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Speaker 1: Sizlovsky from Our Birth Our Stories. Good morning, Tessa.

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

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Speaker 1: Really good? Lovely to have you on the show, Tessa.

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Speaker 1: What are you hearing about this air con situation? Have

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Speaker 1: we been giving birth without air con? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So, Katie, We've been hearing lots of stories. It's apparently

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Speaker 2: been quite an ongoing issue, long standing at RDIH, both

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Speaker 2: in the maternity ward and in the birth suites, that

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Speaker 2: the air conditioning is either not working or not working properly.

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Speaker 2: It's basically a staple item to bring your own fan

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Speaker 2: to the hospital because the air conditioning is so had.

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Speaker 2: We've got lots of women that have been saying they

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Speaker 2: had to send their partners to Bunnings or to Kmart

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Speaker 2: to pick up a fan because it was so hot.

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Speaker 2: There's I think about three or four pedestal fans that

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Speaker 2: the ward shares and DATSI it. So the air conditioning

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Speaker 2: is pretty terrible up there at the moment.

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Speaker 1: That's crazy to hear. So how many moms do you

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Speaker 1: reckon have been impacted by this? Do you not look?

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Speaker 2: We put a call out. We were quite surprised that

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Speaker 2: the Health Minister responded the way he did in Parliament because,

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Speaker 2: as we said, this has sort of been a long

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Speaker 2: standing issue. It's fairly well recognized by the Midwi free

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Speaker 2: staff at RDH that the air conditioning is not working properly.

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Speaker 2: So we were fairly fairly sort of shocked that he

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Speaker 2: sort of said, no, there's no problems with the econ

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Speaker 2: and we put a call out on the birth stories

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Speaker 2: page and we were inundated by messages. There were you know,

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Speaker 2: women saying repeated messages, as I've said, of women saying

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Speaker 2: they bought they're own fan. It was really hot. There

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Speaker 2: was one lady who said her baby was admitted to

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Speaker 2: the NIKU with what they thought might have been sepsist

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Speaker 2: and in fact it was just overheating because it was

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Speaker 2: so hot on the ward. Another lady who had said that,

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Speaker 2: you know, her baby's temperature was spiking because again it

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Speaker 2: was so hot, and that she just had to unwrap.

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Speaker 2: So lots of mums are just leaving their babies in

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Speaker 2: nappies and nothing else because it's so hot. On the ward,

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Speaker 2: women talking about laboring ye with obviously not very good

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Speaker 2: air conditioning, and having to get fans brought into the

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Speaker 2: labor ward, choosing to discharge and go home early. There

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Speaker 2: were a number of people who said they chosen to

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Speaker 2: discharge early because it was so hot it was unbearable

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Speaker 2: up there. So it's a lot and as I said,

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Speaker 2: it's an ongoing issue. We've had people saying, you know,

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Speaker 2: this has been affecting people since sort of the beginning

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Speaker 2: of last year and is continuing to be an issue

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Speaker 2: into twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately, are any of those women saying sort of what

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Speaker 1: the staff are telling them, because presumably the staff aren't

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Speaker 1: real happy about this either.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the advice from the midwives is can you

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Speaker 2: bring a fan up? Can you get somebody to bring

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Speaker 2: a fan up? So there doesn't seem to be any

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Speaker 2: sort of directive from kind of higher up about what

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Speaker 2: the problem is. And I'm not sure whether it's a

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Speaker 2: problem across the hospital or it's particularly impacting Level six.

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Speaker 2: We haven't I haven't obviously made any about other areas

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Speaker 2: of the hospital, but yeah, it seems like it's this

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Speaker 2: ongoing problem. Some of the rooms do have fans, some

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Speaker 2: of them don't. Some of them are shared sort of

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Speaker 2: between the beds, where you've got two people in the

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Speaker 2: same the same room. So I think the staff are

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Speaker 2: trying to make the best of the bad situation. But

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Speaker 2: obviously it's not within their control to fix the air

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Speaker 2: conditioning itself, and they've got limited supplies of pedestal fans.

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Speaker 1: We see for them as well, because they'd be wanting

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Speaker 1: to make sure that women and their babies, you know,

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Speaker 1: are as comfortable as they can be. But like you

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Speaker 1: touched on, you know, if you've then got little babies

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Speaker 1: being born and they're not you know, like you're not

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Speaker 1: able to keep them cool, like that's a concern.

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Speaker 2: It is. It's one of the major contributing factors to

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Speaker 2: SIVs is babies overheating, and obviously with newborn's, part of

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Speaker 2: what you're taught when you first have your baby is

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Speaker 2: about swaddling them and you know, making sure that they're

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Speaker 2: not getting too cold, but if you've got air conditioning

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Speaker 2: that's not working properly or not working at all, then

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Speaker 2: you sort of face with the opposite problem. How do

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Speaker 2: you keep them cool in that sort of situation. So

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Speaker 2: it is really concerning, and we're really hoping that the

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Speaker 2: minister or his staff are listening and also RDH are

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Speaker 2: listening to hear that this isn't something that's I think

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Speaker 2: there was in question time he sort of readdressed it

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Speaker 2: and indicated that maybe there was some problems up on

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Speaker 2: level eight, but this isn't level eight we're talking about.

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Speaker 2: We're talking about level six where the birth suites are

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Speaker 2: in the maternity wards.

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Speaker 1: And Tessa, I saw it under the last government. I

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Speaker 1: think that the worst thing that a government can do

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Speaker 1: is simply, you know, think to themselves or the oppositions

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Speaker 1: are asking a question so I'm not going to answer it,

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Speaker 1: or I don't care what they've got to say. They

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Speaker 1: have to understand that that is coming from everyday territorians

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Speaker 1: who are raising this as an issue. We are talking

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Speaker 1: about women that are going to give birth that are

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Speaker 1: raising this as an issue. So they need to sit

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Speaker 1: up and they need to listen and you know, there

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Speaker 1: was a matter of public importance of course last week

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Speaker 1: in Parliament as well from the opposition, because there's obviously

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Speaker 1: quite a few concerns still continuing to flow through when

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Speaker 1: it comes to maternity services in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: There are Katie, and one of the things that we

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Speaker 2: had hoped as a group that we would get some

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Speaker 2: clarity out of the matter of public importance and the

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Speaker 2: questions posed in question time was about the ten million

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Speaker 2: dollars of additional funding that we've been talking about now

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Speaker 2: for I think going on eight or nine months, which

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Speaker 2: we still haven't seen come through. So there are still

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Speaker 2: these ongoing issues that need to be addressed. And look

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Speaker 2: credit to the Health Minister. We met with him before Christmas.

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Speaker 2: We're hoping to have another meeting very shortly. They have

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Speaker 2: been taking steps to address some of the things that

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Speaker 2: we're raising, but there are still a lot of issues

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Speaker 2: which do need to be dealt with. And I mean

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Speaker 2: the air conditioning may be part of a broader problem

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Speaker 2: with RDH. I'm not sure, but when you're talking about

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Speaker 2: our you know, some of our most vulnerable little people,

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Speaker 2: brand new little babies and mums in labor. It's something

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Speaker 2: that really needs to be addressed. It truly does priority.

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Speaker 1: It truly does. Tessa, just really quickly, did you see

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Speaker 1: the latest with health Scope. Obviously that news flowing through

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Speaker 1: on Friday. I don't know that it means too much

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Speaker 1: for us in the NT.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we did see that, Katie, and I agree with you.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure really that it's the outcome we were

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Speaker 2: hoping for. I think it was, you know, we were

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Speaker 2: hoping that maybe a different entity might come in and

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Speaker 2: purchase dar On private hospital, as they have done with

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Speaker 2: some of the other health Scope hospitals. I'm not sure

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Speaker 2: whether it being sort of you know, a repurposed health

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Speaker 2: Scope type organization is going to see the reinstatement of

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Speaker 2: private maternity services. But hopefully the Health Minister when he

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Speaker 2: meets with you know, with the new entity and also

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Speaker 2: with the administrators, can really push for that being part

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Speaker 2: of the conditions for DPH.

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Speaker 1: I agree they have to do something. Tessa. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning. We're going to

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Speaker 1: continue this discussion tomorrow. We have got the opposition leader

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Speaker 1: Selena Hubo on so we'll talk more about it tomorrow

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Speaker 1: morning as well. Thank you for having.

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Speaker 2: A chat with us, no problems. Thank you very much, Katie,

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Speaker 2: thank you