"Midwife Care"

Hello,

My partner is late in their second trimester of pregnancy and has been unable to meet a midwife at the Esperance Health Campus. This was the 2nd time her appointment had been cancelled. The first time was scheduled for three weeks ago, and her appointment was cancelled by the midwife team.

Due to work commitments 1 hour out of town we were unable to rebook until 3 weeks later, being the day of writing this story. We arrived on time for our appointment and one of the midwives saw us waiting, told us something didn't seem right, and that our booking was not recorded in the system. The booking had been arranged via text as I understand the midwife team does not have an admin staff member to coordinate bookings. My partner was incredibly upset as this is the 2nd time we've been cancelled on.

I felt the midwife looked equally upset that the appointment arranged via txt hadn't been entered into the system. Thankfully they were able to arrange a booking for us on the day of writing this story, but presumably this may have cancelled some other poor woman's appointment.

On our way out we met some friends who work at the campus, who I recall also mentioned to us that the midwife department is a bit of a mess, which aligned with the stories we've been hearing from other mums to be. I thought, clearly there is an issue here.

It's clear to me that the midwife team are under the pump, and need an admin officer to coordinate. The informal txt based system is clearly not adequate for the volume of bookings required, and frankly is, in my opinion, very unprofessional. I recall the midwife we spoke to looked tired and stressed, and I imagine on their end this system is creating a lot of stress, pulling them away from their midwife duties.

I'll also add that as the midwife team doesn't have an admin officer, we had to be ushered through the hospital by a physiotherapist as there's nobody else to do it. I can't imagine a physio is cheap, and this is another reason why I believe a clerk is needed to save some costs for the health campus.

Secondly, the integration between seeing our GP and booking the midwife's appointment was unclear. There's no direct pathway or handover currently in place. We felt like we had to contact the hospital repeatedly to book a midwifes appointment, and were told, I recall  "they'll contact us". We were only able to book an appointment after a friend managed to get us that mobile number to txt. I believe this is a bit of a joke TBH.

I'm sure the midwife team are doing a great job (at the time of writing this we haven't been able to see one yet), but I believe it's clear they need someone to coordinate.

Please sort this out, I feel it's creating a lot of friction for all involved. 

Thanks,

aquilaxc64