A health service needs to care for women and their families as close as possible to home as this allows family members to provide support rather than having to travel. 

EGHS had 110 births last financial year. 

To maintain this number into the future, we must ensure we have appropriately skilled staff to support this service, such as general practitioners with obstetric skills, midwives, lactation consultants, physiotherapists, pathologists, sonographers and theatre services for caesarean deliveries. 

Rural communities, such as Ararat, have an expectation that their health service has a comprehensive emergency response, and therefore the obstetric staff are available to provide emergency responses to pregnant women, and are also available for other emergencies such as road trauma and illnesses. To strengthen the obstetric service at Ararat, the board has invited a delegation of board members and the chief executive officer from the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne to attend the EGHS board meeting on October 20. 

A delegation from EGHS including board members and the chief executive attended a meeting with the Royal Women’s Hospital board in Melbourne on September 10. East Grampians Health Service and the Building for the Future Foundation, are investing heavily in training doctors, nurses and allied health staff to ensure that we have the numbers of qualified staff required to ensure the service can continue into the future. 

A critical part of the education and training is to ensure that our doctors and nurses deliver the most up to date treatment.

East Grampians Health Service offers a low risk birthing service – this means if a doctor has any concerns that the birth may require a higher level of care than we can provide, the birthing mother is referred to Ballarat health services or a Melbourne-based hospital such as the Royal Women’s Hospital. To see young families filled with expectation and excitement awaiting the birth of their baby in the hospital, is one of the greatest joys of being the chief executive of EGHS.

CEO, East Grampians Health Service