00:00The test is basically a way for doctors to determine when a woman presents to a GP or
00:09a hospital with what appear to be contractions, whether that is in fact early labour or whether
00:15it might be instead something like Braxton Hicks contractions or an irritable uterus
00:20or even gastro, which means she wouldn't be in early labour.
00:25So the test is a swab, it's inserted inside the woman and that swab is then placed on
00:30a little cassette, which looks a bit like a COVID test.
00:34That cassette is then put inside a machine and the machine returns a numeric reading.
00:39So if the number that comes back for the medical team is low, it means the woman is not in
00:44early labour.
00:46If the number is high or really high, it means she could have a baby imminently or within
00:51the next week or two.
00:53So the key thing there is the number, the reading that the doctors can get.
00:57So this test is quantitative, not qualitative.
01:01It provides that numeric reading.
01:03So if you're in a rural or remote area, for example, and you are a doctor performing this
01:09test on a woman, she doesn't have any other symptoms, but she does appear to be contracting
01:14and that test then gives you a really high reading, but you've got no other symptoms
01:18to show she's in labour.
01:20That tells you that this woman needs to be evacuated immediately because she could give
01:24birth any day now or any hour even.
01:27So it means doctors, midwives, nurses can then triage that woman in conjunction with
01:33medical or emergency transport services above other patients who might not be as urgent.
01:39And that woman would then be evacuated to a city hospital where there would be a neonatal
01:44intensive care unit, which is crucial for a preemie baby, because while doctors and
01:50teams in rural and regional areas, for example, might have the skills to look after premature
01:55babies, they don't always have the equipment necessary.
01:58And that equipment is so crucial to ensuring better outcomes and even survival for babies
02:04when they're born early.
02:05The company has written to medical communities around the world, it wrote to them back in
02:11July basically saying we've tried everything, we've looked at this, but for various reasons
02:16we need to stop making it.
02:18The only reason that Hologic, the US-based company, actually specified was that there
02:24was variable supply of raw materials which are used to make the device.
02:30So that's the only clear reason we've got.
02:32We have contacted Hologic for comment.
02:35We don't have a response yet.
02:37Doctors or some doctors are sceptical about that reasoning.
02:40They feel that perhaps this is more about economics and that this cost, the cost of
02:46making the product, the device, the rapid foetal fibronectin test just doesn't stack
02:50up and it's just not profitable enough.
02:53Doctors in particularly where I've been looking for this story in rural and regional and remote
02:58areas, if a woman does appear to be in early labour, their priority is at all costs getting
03:04her to a hospital where she and the baby can have the best possible outcome.
03:09What that means is that they will be more likely, without a reliable test, they will
03:16be more likely to err on the side of caution.
03:19And where a test previously may have said, okay, this woman isn't likely to give birth
03:25in the next two weeks, they would be comfortable keeping her at home in her community with
03:30her family.
03:33In future, without that test available, they'd be more likely to go, oh, we're not sure,
03:38so let's not risk it, let's send her to the city hospital to avoid all risk.
03:43That will then put further strain on already stretched emergency transport systems and
03:49services.
03:50So you can imagine that they're dealing with a whole lot of patients already.
03:53This is going to increase their load.
03:54So that's a big concern at the moment.
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