Ms. Mettam asks about the number of maternity bypasses in Perth and country WA hospitals from March-July 2024. The response details that full bypasses don't occur, diversions are for safety, and provides bypass numbers for metropolitan health services, stating zero for country services.

AnsweredQoN 1237Legislative Assembly
Asked
7 August 2024
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

(1) Please provide the number of maternity bypasses that have occurred across the Perth metropolitan health services administered by the health department in the months of March, April, May, June and July 2024 with a breakdown by hospital? (2) Please provide the number of maternity bypasses that have occurred across the country health services administered by the health department in the months of March, April, May, June and July 2024, with a breakdown by hospital?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
10 September 2024
Responded by
Minister for Health
Response time
5 days
(1) Hospitals never go on full bypass, and assessment services are always available. All efforts are made to avoid diversion which is only ever supported in response to patient safety and access concerns. Women are assessed by a midwife to ensure it is safe for them to be transferred to another hospital to give birth.
King Edward Memorial Hospital is a tertiary service and as such, is never on diversion for tertiary level care. Patients who require non-tertiary level or low-acuity care may be transferred to another health service.
Health Service Provider
North Metropolitan Health Service
East Metropolitan Health Service
South Metropolitan Health Service
Number of maternity bypasses
20
38
50
(2)       Nil

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more