Midwives have protested outside one of Sydney’s busiest hospitals after learning of cuts to its maternity workforce. The workers say it will put the safety of mothers and babies at risk.
00:00Dozens of midwives and some new mums have braved the rain today for a snap rally outside Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
00:09They did this after it was confirmed up to 25 maternity positions would be cut, mostly from birthing wards.
00:16Staff in the midwifery group program say this will slash their workforce and they're concerned about the impact it'll have on their ability to provide gold standard care for mums and babies.
00:26They say the waiting list for the program is already long and the maternity workforce at the hospital is already stretched to the limit.
00:33We need people to know that this is not going to be good, we're not going to be able to safely continue to safely care for our mums and buffs.
00:40Your midwives up on the floor on the postnatal floor it's just absolutely horrendous as it is today and has been for months and months and months.
00:49It's a service that we need to protect. I think cutting numbers at this hospital would reduce the quality of care.
00:56The government says these aren't job cuts but a case of physicians being relocated to where they're most needed.
01:03A reduction or slowdown in birthing at that facility, so a reduction in births taking place, that means nurses and midwives may be moved to other parts of maternity services.
01:15The workers argue the tool used to conduct the review is flawed because it doesn't consider the fact that midwives care for mothers and their babies,
01:23nor does it take into account that many of the women they see here are very ill and require an extra level of care.
