MEDICUS MARCH 2016

F R O M T H E E D I T O R

A victory for common sense

centre in Mirrabooka, to the AMA. I have been very grateful for their work over the years with a high proportion of the patients in my antenatal clinic at Osborne Park Hospital being refugee women living in suburbs such as Girrawheen and Balga. Their ability to provide culturally-sensitive health services, translation, basic primary care, advocacy and refuge services for an often very desperate group of women is admirable. It is unfortunate that their perinatal mental health program was recently subject to a withdrawal of funding. Here is a great example of an A n Italian diplomat, Count Galezzo Ciano – also known as Mussolini’s son-in-law – was almost certainly quoting a local proverb in 1942 when he said: “La victoria trova cento padri, a nessuno vuole riconoscere l'insuccesso.” Roughly translated, this equates to: “Victory has 100 fathers. No one wants to recognise failure.” Count Ciano’s much quoted statement came to mind when considering the recent decision by Health Minister Dr Kim Hames to keep the Bentley Hospital maternity unit open for at least another two years. This followed the Review of Maternity Services in metropolitan non-tertiary public hospitals, written by esteemed Obstetrician Professor Con Michael, and delivered in November last year which found that the maternity unit was “an unsatisfactory facility that is badly in need of refurbishing”. “It is not conducive to establishing a

efficient, independently run, caring and compassionate NGO filling a niche that the public health system does not. I am proud to be advocating on their behalf in discussions to reverse the cuts with the Health Department and the Mental Health Commission. Sometimes difficult decisions need to be made as a sign of compassion and love. Opening borders without care and consideration potentially exposes the citizens of a nation to security risks. Asylum seekers themselves can too easily fall into the clutches of those who would profit from their misery, different and safe contemporary model of care,” the report said. Dr Hames’ decision not to accept Professor Michael’s recommendation to close the maternity unit was immediately welcomed by a range of groups and organisations. As Count Ciano would have said, the decision had many fathers. Perhaps it was a combined victory, but certainly the clinically and carefully detailed approach by the AMA (WA) and in particular, President Dr Michael Gannon, played a major part in the Minister rejecting the report’s recommendation. The role of the media was also important, with a series of articles about Bentley. But let us remember that as early as June 2015, Dr Gannon wrote to the Health Minister expressing concern about the possibility of closure – followed up with additional pressure through a series of meetings and representations.

like people smugglers, pimps and unscrupulous employers. I support a compassionate humanitarian migration program. I hope that we all do, but we may need to support our elected politicians when they make decisions that benefit the overwhelming majority of Australians. If we can maintain community support for a generous, organised compassionate migration program, and invest in the development of migrant communities in Australia through organisations like Ishar, we are further enriched as a nation. ■ Dr Gannon immediately called the Minister’s reversal “a victory for common sense”. “There was a lot of misinformation floating around about consolidation of obstetric units in the Perth metropolitan area, and the review into maternity services. However, to close the unit at Bentley was way too soon, and way too fast.” Dr Gannon said. “What this decision does reflect is the difficulty attracting and retaining a high standard midwifery workforce. Midwifery Group Practice is an inefficient way of deploying a limited cohort of trained health professionals. Women and babies enjoy the highest standards of care when midwives, Obstetricians, Paediatricians and Anaesthetists work in teams. “I would like to thank the Minister for his decision. However, we now need assurances that any urgent repairs and upgrading of equipment necessary at the Bentley Hospital obstetric unit are made as quickly as possible.” Dr Gannon said. ■

Careful compassion needed for dealing with asylum seeker issue Dr Michael Gannon Continued from page 2

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