THE new chief executive of an Adelaide hospital has called on country mums to have their babies at North Eastern Community Hospital when they are not able to have them at a regional hospital.
Mothers-to-be are required to travel to Adelaide to have their babies in certain clinical circumstances, such as premature births, multiple births and other obstetric complications.
Michele Smith said rather than going to one of the large city hospitals, privately insured country women and uninsured woman seeking a private hospital may prefer a small, family-friendly community hospital such as North Eastern, where the nursery has recently been extensively upgraded.
“We are blessed in South Australia with high quality public and private hospitals of all sizes,” Ms Smith said.
“However, country mums may prefer to have their babies at a smaller community hospital in a family-friendly environment, rather than at one of the major public hospitals.”
About 500 babies are born each year at North Eastern Community Hospital, compared to thousands of babies each year at the large metropolitan hospitals, which Ms Smith said allowed North Eastern to provide mums with a personal experience in a caring environment.
