By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
CASEY Hospital has been cleared by a state-appointed review despite a report showing a higher-than-average mortality ratio for babies born at the hospital, a government spokeswoman has said.
According to a state health department report, the hospital’s perinatal mortality ratio for babies born at 22 weeks was 168 in 2008-12, well higher than the statewide benchmark of 100.
For babies at 32 weeks, the rate was 138, according to the report Victorian perinatal services performance indicators 2008-12.
A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessy said no health service – bar the Djerriwarrh Health Service which ran the under-fire Bacchus Marsh Hospital – had been identified as “being of concern” by the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity.
The council had come to that conclusion after reviewing all perinatal deaths across the state over the past seven years, the spokeswoman said.
She said the Department of Health and Human Services would also review all of the state’s perinatal services to identify if any improvements can be made.
The department report had used a mortality rates measure, which included all perinatal deaths, including extremely premature babies, the spokeswoman said.
“It does not assess whether or not a death may have been avoidable,” she said.
“It is absolutely vital that all perinatal deaths are independently and externally reviewed to identify what occurred, and that’s why the Minister for Health has put in place new measures to increase reporting and review of perinatal deaths across the state.”
The new measures include requiring all health services to review any perinatal death, and the quick review of cases by a statewide perinatal autopsy service run by the Royal Women’s Hospital.
Regional perinatal mortality committees will also review each death within three months.
