Nats say Government missing chance to improve maternity care

National says the Government has missed an opportunity to help mothers and their babies by rejecting a call for a full review of maternity services.

Yesterday Health Minister Pete Hodgson released two reports backing his decision not to hold a review and an audit of birth data, saying despite problems he was happy with the overall quality of maternity services.

National's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said the Government had made a mistake as a review would have led to improvements.

"Maternity services need stronger links at the primary care level with midwives and GPs working more closely together," Mr Ryall said.

"A review of maternity services would have laid a solid platform for change. Such a review could have identified options for stronger and more collaborative services."

Mr Hodgson said he was happy "overall" with maternity services but acknowledged there were significant gaps in information and evidence it was not working well for some women and babies.

The two reports were written in the wake of the Wellington coroner's call for a full review of the midwifery service and an audit of data to establish how women and babies were faring under maternity care.

In November last year coroner Garry Evans released his findings into the deaths of Saskia Marama Swagerman-Fugle and Cameron Elliot.

Mr Evans said midwives, who were increasingly sole maternity providers, were not adequately prepared in some cases to look after high-risk patients.

Mr Hodgson had already foreshadowed a full review would not take place and yesterday he released two reports backing his decision.

The Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee advised against a review, saying it would be an unwise use of resources.

The committee said a full review should not take place until current reviews of education for midwives and their contracts were completed.

An audit would also be "extremely difficult" because of "significant gaps" in current data.

The committee recommended that it would be better to set up a proper reporting system for future use rather than a retrospective audit.

The Health Ministry told Mr Hodgson it agreed with the committee's assessment and said work on the comprehensive collection of birth data had been going on since 1998.

It was estimated that it would cost up to $4 million to set up a national data system for all births and up to $2.2 million a year to run.

The ministry concluded: "New Zealand has a maternity service which appears to be delivering maternity care well for most women and babies."

Despite the positive report, officials said there was pressure on an overstretched midwifery workforce.

There were also signs of problems within the system such as variation in caesarean section rates, infections, still born rates amongst different ethnic groups, and an apparent increase in neonatal deaths in premature Maori and Pacific babies.

Mr Hodgson said he was confident that overall New Zealand had high quality maternity services though "there is work to be done".

In particular he pinpointed the need for better data to help improve the quality of maternity services and this would be "rapidly investigated".

The Government announced in November it would be putting an extra $18 million a year into maternity services but critics said it was not enough.

- NZPA