Maitland Hospital - near Newcastle - is Given Recommendations to Better Handle Miscarriage Cases

Tuesday February 17, 2009

A patient who miscarried in a toilet in the Maitland Hospital near Newcastle, Jodie Whiteside, said she was satisfied with recommendations made by the hospital to improve management of future miscarriage cases.

After Whiteside went public about her experience of miscarrying in a hospital toilet on 20 December, a Clinical Excellence Commission review revealed that two out of three major cases did not receive optimum service due to emergency departments being full.
It also showed that hospital staff should have been more informed about the women's trauma.

Consequently, the review made 14 recommendations of which one was that Maitland Hospital, near Newcastle, fast-track women through to the emergency department if they miscarry after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Other recommendations included appointing a nurse to manage the emergency department waiting room, increasing a woman who miscarries' access to social workers and a follow-up plan.

"I'm just hopeful that all these recommendations put forward happen," she told the Newcastle Herald.

Hunter New England Health chief executive Dr Nigel Lyons said plans to double the emergency department by 2010 would help staff manage patients but would not say whether any disciplinary action would be taken against the staff involved.

NSW Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner believes that the recommendation should have incorporated that women who miscarry are given commode chairs or pans to eliminate the risk of miscarrying into toilets.

"A situation where a woman suspected of suffering a miscarriage needs to go to the toilet in the emergency department should not occur," she told the Newcastle Herald.

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