Twenty years ago a new hospital was built at Frankton to replace the old cottage hospital which was well past its use-by date.

But sadly, investment and services in Lakes District Hospital have not kept up with the tremendous population growth we’ve seen in the Wakatipu in the past 15 years.

We are the fastest-growing region in the southern hemisphere and in another 15 years our population is projected to be equal that of Invercargill.

But Southland District Health Board and Health Minister Tony Ryall still call us a remote rural outpost.

Eight years ago when I was mayoress of Queenstown, I circulated a petition because – along with many other locals – I was concerned at the withdrawal of obstetric GP services at LDH and throughout the country. Fifteen hundred people signed the petition.

It was a plea to the then-Labour Minister of Health Annette King to restore the team approach to rural maternity care, involving midwives and GP obstetricians, and to remove any or all barriers – including financial barriers – for this to happen and to introduce incentives, including financial incentives, to encourage team-based rural maternity care.

The petition caused the ire of some midwives at the time. It was never intended to cast aspersions on them as they are a dedicated and hardworking professional body.

A reply from Hon Annette King received in May 2001 stated: “The Ministry of Health expects 50 per cent of women screened/assessed to be able to birth in Queenstown.

“The remaining 50 per cent will be referred to a hospital that has secondary maternity services (and a specialist obstetrician) available.”

But the fact that for the past eight years there’s been well as low as 15 per cent of local women having their babies at LDH tells us the system of midwives as “lead maternity carers” is not working.

The big question is how to get balance into the maternity healthcare system here in the Wakatipu. SDHB has been short-changing us for years – using us and abusing us – particularly when it comes to our elderly who have to be shipped out of town when they need 24-hour hospital care.

But that’s another issue.

Most young mothers-to-be that I’ve spoken to have made a conscious decision to err on the side of caution and go to a base hospital to give birth where services are available should any emergency arise.

This is not only costly but very disruptive to family life at a time when they need support from loved ones.
When will SDHB recognise that Queenstown is unique in that no other primary maternity care facility is two to three hours away from a base hospital?

SDHB and the MOH have an obligation to put services and policies in place to bring back a team approach at LDH to provide pregnant women with a mix of skills so they can enjoy what is surely their right – giving birth in familiar surroundings with their family around them, safe in the knowledge that should an emergency arise they’ll be taken care of.

Lorraine Cooper is a former mayoress of Queenstown