REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: It's a very exciting day at the opening here in Southern Tasmania where a $6 million commitment by the Federal Government has helped us to expand birthing services at the Calvary Hospital. People may remember that when the Hobart Private Hospital ceased providing maternity services there was real concern about where those 500 babies would be born every year. Because of the $6 million investment, we've been able to support operations, not only at the Royal Hobart Hospital but also here at Calvary Hospital, so that mums here in Southern Tasmania have choice about where they birth their baby. And with a skilled and highly qualified team, they'll be able to do that very safely for years to come.
JOURNALIST: Can I just get, really quickly, what input did we see from the Federal Government?
WHITE: Money-wise?
JOURNALIST: Yeah, how much went in?
WHITE: The full $6 million.
JOURNALIST: Okay, thank you.
BRIDGET ARCHER, TASMANIA MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Thanks, Bec. Well, as Rebecca said, it's really great to be here today to officially open these expanded maternity services here at Calvary. When Hobart closed we knew that there was going to be a significant gap for Tasmanian women and their babies in terms of maternity services. We're really grateful to the work of the Australian Government in delivering $6 million to invest here in these private services here at Calvary Lenah Valley, but also expanding those services at the Royal. And as Rebecca and I were out earlier this year on the construction of the intensive residential parenting unit at St John's Park, which is well underway and will be nearing completion towards the end of this year, so delivering those important mother and baby services here in Southern Tasmania as well. So, a really great outcome and a good example of the collaboration between all levels of government and, in this case, in the private sector as well.
JOURNALIST: Are you glad it didn't really fall on the public service fully, given, they probably can't cope with that kind of increase?
ARCHER: Look, we knew that it would be a substantial impact if all of those services were to fall to the public system. And we've heard this morning as well about the rate of births that they have been experiencing here since the redevelopment, which is not unsubstantial. But importantly, it is important for Tasmanian families to have choices about their healthcare, including private services and the provision of private services. Many Tasmanians hold private health insurance and it's really important that they have that choice and that option to be able to use that, for example, where they live. So, we really value the role of the private sector in terms of why they help the ecosystem as well.
JOURNALIST: Thank you.
MELISSA EVANS, CALVARY HOSPITAL, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Thank you for coming today, and we're really excited about the opening of our refurbished maternity unit. And we're very grateful for the support that we've had from the Federal and the state government. When Hobart Private announced that they were ceasing maternity services, the way the healthcare system in Hobart worked together to transition a safe maternity service from Hobart Private to the public and to Lenah Valley was amazing. We worked in collaboration with the Department of Health, with Healthscope Private with the Royal Hobart and, of course, our team here to make sure that transition came across smoothly.
So, last year we delivered about 355 babies. This year we're going to deliver, potentially, about 800. We're currently sitting at 755 I think at the moment, so we've got a few more days left in the month. So we're really excited about the services that are now being offered here. And as both the Ministers have said, we're really excited about being able to provide that choice to the Hobart community.
JOURNALIST: What kind of physical expansion did that actually look like on the ground here?
EVANS: We have five birthing suites here. We had a fifth birthing suite that we hadn't used for a while, so what we've done is actually refurbished that. So, we removed the 1970’s fixtures and have put in a beautiful birthing bath and it, the suite, looks amazing. So that was the first thing we did in phase one. And then phase two, we've renovated our nurses station, then we've also renovated our special care nursery. So, it's providing a much more pleasant space for our mothers and their babies if they have to have that special care nursery experience. We've done some amenities with some painting and a nice new patient kind of area that they can sit with a fridge et cetera and enjoy with their families.
JOURNALIST: Was there a fair bit of pressure initially? Did you kind of feel like you almost had to step up in a way, given there wasn't a whole lot of other alternatives?
EVANS: No. We're here to serve the community - that's one of our mission statements. So we really felt, because we provided maternity services, it was a real opportunity for us to come and step up to the plate and make sure that we really were part of the health environment in Hobart. And look, it's been a great opportunity. I can't speak more highly of the way the teams have worked together, and we've gone from averaging 30 births a month to an average of 66.
It is really amazing how the two services have come together. So obviously, the staff at Hobart Private have, the majority, transitioned here, some went across to the Royal Hobart. And same for the obstetricians and the paediatricians. So everyone working collaboratively has made what we've achieved today possible.
JOURNALIST: I was going to say, what was that uptick in staff looked like?
EVANS: Yeah look, we actually managed to have a number of staff come across from Hobart Private, so it was all about choice of where people wanted to go. So, some people chose to go to the Royal Hobart and some people chose to come to us, and some people from the Royal Hobart chose to come to us. So, it was a real opportunity across the sector for people to, you know, make some slight changes. Knowing that we were going to have a huge uptick in our number of deliveries a month, people were certainly going to be exposed to a lot more maternity services than we had been doing in the prior period before the announcement from Hobart Private.
JOURNALIST: Slightly unrelated, so if you can't answer that's okay. Calvary was obviously looking at taking over the Hobart Private. How's that going?
EVANS: At the moment, that's something I can't really speak about, because it is going through an ACCC process. So, I'm unable to provide any further comments.
JOURNALIST: Do you know how long it will take?
EVANS: I don't know. The ACCC is a bit of a mystery to me, so it might take a little while.
JOURNALIST: Thank you.