Maternity services at a northwest Tasmanian hospital are unsafe and overwhelmed, forcing expectant mothers to travel while in labour, the peak body for Australian doctors claims.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says it is receiving increasing complaints from mothers and doctors about maternity services at the North West Private Hospital.
AMA Tasmania vice-president Annette Barratt said the hospital in Burnie had been on bypass several times in recent months, forcing it to turn mothers away.
"The current service is unsafe. It is not providing adequate safe services for mothers and babies. It is overwhelmed," she said.
"The thought of being in labour, turning up at your local hospital expecting to deliver and being told you've got to drive at least another hour and a half ... to have that service you need," she said.
"On occasion they're having to deliver in emergency departments because they can't go the hour and a half to (another hospital in) Launceston."
In October 2021, the state government announced plans to bring northwest maternity services into the Tasmanian Health Service after a review found deficiencies in care.
The state government said it also planned to resume maternity services at the North West Regional Hospital.
The service had previously been transferred away from the North West Regional Hospital, with the North West Private Hospital taking public and private mothers under a contractual agreement.
The AMA has called for maternity services to be urgently shifted back to the North West Regional Hospital from the North West Private Hospital, well ahead of the state government's November 2024 deadline.
Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said the process won't be rushed.
"We're building safer models for maternity services on the northwest coast," he told reporters on Thursday.
"The health minister and the department are working carefully through that in a way that is in the genuine best interests of women and their babies and their families."
The state health department has been contacted for comment.
The 2021 review referenced reviews in 2013 and 2015 that noted contractual agreements with the North West Private Hospital were having a "negative impact on access to and quality of public maternity services".
