[Greens-Media] Greens motion to expand Public Hospital homebirth program passes parliament

[Adele.Pedder at parliament.vic.gov.au]

The Greens motion to expand the public hospital homebirth service, 
including a commitment to fund start-up costs in the next State budget, 
passed through state parliament today.
"This is great news for mothers-to-be across Victoria. The Greens will 
hold this government to account on their commitment today to ensure that 
many families will be able to access homebirth services through their 
local public hospital," said Victorian Greens Health Spokesperson Colleen 
Hartland.
"Despite overwhelming evidence to support and expand the homebirth 
program, the government has been delaying for 18 months on this important 
women's health issue."
"The Health Minister was advised of the success of the trial homebirth 
programs at Sunshine and Casey hospitals in June 2012."
"Today's motion means that we're going to see some real progress and soon 
women will be accessing this expanded maternity service."
"The homebirth program has been found to provide quality service to 
mothers at a lower cost than hospital based care."
"The program provides an important low cost means of increasing the 
hospital?s capacity without compromising on quality or safety."
"Hospitals are over capacity and turning mothers away. The expansion of 
the public hospital homebirth program will extend the reach of maternity 
services provided by hospitals to mothers across Victoria," said Ms 
Hartland.

Motion passed in the Legislative Council today, supported by both Labor 
and Liberal members:
I move ?
That this House calls on the Minister for Health, Mr David Davis, MLC, to, 
as soon as feasible, take the necessary steps to expand public hospital 
homebirth services, including ?
(a)        committing to fund start-up costs of homebirth programs to 
hospitals providing maternity services in the next State budget;
(b)        developing State-wide guidelines and information for health 
services implementing homebirth services;
(c)        developing systems to prospectively collect costing data; and
(d)        supporting further research into the safety of homebirth 
programs and research to compare clinical outcome data associated with low 
risk births in different birth settings.

For comment: Colleen Hartland 0417 445 845

Adele Pedder

Electorate Officer
Greens MP Colleen Hartland 
Ph: 9689 6373. Mob: 0422 108 539
colleenhartland.org
75 Victoria Street Seddon 3011
 


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Parliament of Victoria                                                                                                                    . 

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