Calvary ensures availability of Maternal Services
Recently Hobart Private Hospital announced that it would be closing its maternity ward by August this year. Healthscope, the company managing Hobart Private, has also closed its maternity wards in other locations across Australia as well. The company as a whole is facing serious financial challenges.
The decision has been prompted by the fact that maternity services are simply not profitable. This, of course, is currently the case for all private maternity services in Australia. In Hobart there are two private providers – Hobart Private and Calvary Hospital, Lenah Valley. Closing down one service means that there is only one alternative available.
Hobart Private provides for some 500 births a year. Calvary Private Hospital currently manages around 390 births a year and would need to increase its services significantly. It has offered to come to the assistance of those seeking the services of a private provider.
The issue remains that the current cost structures would mean that Calvary will face financial challenges as it takes on more maternity requests. The federal government has offered to assist with additional funding. However, some deeper issues remain.
Although it cited the lack of midwives (and that is a very real issue) the decision by Healthscope was principally driven by the need to ensure financial sustainability. Maternity care is simply not profitable.
It is true, as we have often heard, that the health system in Australia is under stress. However, steps can be taken to strengthen the system. We need to preserve the model we currently have which offers choice. There is the option of both public and private services. We also need to ensure that the health funds do not focus on maximising profitability at the expense of the provision of services especially to those who cannot afford top cover.
For couples wishing to have private hospital service for maternity care, current health insurance cover does not assist most couples. Only those on the ‘Gold’ level of cover are able to receive some rebate. It is worth noting that termination of pregnancy is covered by ‘Bronze’ and ‘Silver’ levels.
In addition, expectant parents often encounter significant out-of-pocket expenses for maternity care, particularly for services provided outside the hospital setting that are not covered by their private health insurance. These non-hospital components of the maternity journey include fees for obstetricians and diagnostic imaging and can cost a patient more than $12,000.
Young couples facing a mortgage, grappling with cost-of-living pressures, are not being afforded the assistance they need in having children. The out-of-pocket costs associated with wishing to have the choice of an obstetrician are daunting for the ordinary couple. In fact, they can feel the system is prejudiced against their efforts to have a family.
Without high levels of immigration, Australia would be facing demographic decline. Australia’s birth rate has reached an all-time low of 1.50 births per woman in 2023 and is below the replacement rate of 2.1 needed for population sustainability.
Our nation must invest in enabling couples to confidently plan for an increase in their family. This must be a priority if we are to increase our birth rate. We know that we will be facing an ageing demographic in the Australian population in the immediate future. Everything must be done to encourage couples to have children. The starting point must be that they are supported in the provision of affordable maternity services.
Calvary Hospital, with its work being mission-driven rather than profit-driven, has stepped up to ensure that those couples who want private services are provided for. They are to be commended for this decision. And the government to its credit has offered to help them meet the extra costs they will incur in positioning themselves to receive more women about to give birth.
However, it is vital for Australia that it invests in support for couples who want to have children. We are simply ensuring our best possible future.