A regional health official has assured Wimmera patients that maternity services remain available in Horsham.

But Grampians Health Acute Operations executive director Ben Kelly said maternity patients might transfer from Horsham to Ballarat for the birth of their babies during times of high demand. He stressed that the system had been in place since before the creation of Grampians Health.

“While COVID-19 is present in our community, we know there will continue to be staff on leave or unable to work as close contacts or positive cases,” he said. “As part of our COVID-19 response planning, we have put in place systems to manage this on a day-to-day basis, including planning for anticipated maternity deliveries.”

Mr Kelly’s comments came in the wake of Member for Lowan Emma Kealy raising fears on hearing information from a ‘Wimmera health executive’ that maternity services had been suspended in Horsham.

“It wasn’t someone in the street or passing stranger. It was legitimate information and I stand by what I’ve said,” she said.

Ms Kealy said the news was validation of community concerns about a potential loss of ‘local’ health services when authorities initially proposed a merger of the Wimmera Health Care Group and Ballarat Health Services.

“We know there are issues surrounding staff fatigue and furloughing but our community still deserves good access to services and to know what services are available. I believe there is a problem with transparency at the moment,” she said.

“Families deserve confidence that the support services they need are close by and won’t be closed on a whim, particularly in the case of an early delivery.”

Mr Kelly said Grampians Health had medium and long-term plans in place for models of care across all its sites and ‘a commitment to delivering and improving capacity for both maternity and orthopaedic services in Horsham’.

EDITORIAL: Health service scrutiny remains

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