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Calvary maternity services hiring midwives as solution to Hobart Private Hospital Healthscope exit from maternity
A plan to save private maternity services in southern Tasmania is underway after their future was thrown into doubt in February.
On June 10, a consortium of health organisations began the 11-week transition, which will increase Calvary Lenah Valley Hospital's annual birthing capacity from 350 beds to 900.
The increase is aimed at allowing the hospital to gradually absorb a shortfall in maternity beds left by Hobart Private Hospital, which will close its maternity services on August 20.
Hobart Private would usually manage about 500 births per year, while Calvary handles about 380 to 390.
At a public forum on Tuesday, Calvary Health Care reported that hiring and expansion plans were currently meeting or exceeding expectations.
Staffing the expanded offering has been top of mind as a make-or-break issue because Tasmania has suffered from a lack of midwives.
Hobart Private Hospital cited difficulties in maintaining an adequate workforce as the primary reason for the decision to stop delivering babies.
Further, a January review found problems at the Royal Hobart Hospital relating to a shortage of trained midwives.
Transition project lead Saman Borazjani said Calvary had faced the same hiring challenges as hospitals across Australia, but they were being overcome.
Calvary's clinical services director Leah Magliano said the response to the hiring campaign had "surpassed expectations".
"We will absolutely have the required amount of staff that we'll need," she said.
A spokesperson for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Foundation said it was supporting members through the transition.
In the aftermath of Hobart Private Hospital's maternity closure, the federal government announced it would invest $6 million to help meet an increase in demand for public and private maternity services.
Calvary said it was using its share of the funding for new equipment and capital works, including upgrading one of its five birthing suites.
Mr Borazjani said five new special care nursery bays would be built.
"A lot of these works have been done in conjunction with not losing any capacity with our current occupancy and workflow.
Meanwhile, Hobart Private is deciding how to best use the 28-bed ward that is currently being used for maternity, with the final birth expected in August.
General manager Georgia Banks said the community's needs were being considered in relation to future plans for the ward.
"It's a lot of space and we know how valuable space is in any hospital, so we absolutely have that at the forefront of our mind," Ms Banks said.
