Miscarriage protocols to be audited

The NSW government will review the use of guidelines governing the care of patients
suffering miscarriages in emergency rooms.
The state's decision to carry out the review comes after another woman came forward
to tell of her ordeal of being forced to miscarry in a hospital toilet.
Maitland Hospital has been swept up in a wave of controversy after complaints from
at least three women about the care they received while suffering miscarriages at
the Hunter Valley facility.
NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca said the state-wide use of the guidelines would
be audited and staff at the hospital would undergo specific training following the
complaints.
Lisa Watt, 39, has told of miscarrying and having to flush her baby down the
emergency department toilet at Maitland Hospital on May 19 last year, after a bed
could not found for her.
She spoke out on Sunday after 30-year-old Jodie Whiteside on Friday revealed that at
the same hospital on December 22 she had been told to go to a public toilet cubicle
for a urine sample and while there she miscarried into the bowl.
A third woman has also sent a letter of complaint to the hospital after she
miscarried on December 6.
Mrs Watt said no other woman should have had to experience what she went through.
"You can move through the loss of a child but the flushing the toilet .... that's
there every day," she said.
"It's such a horrible feeling, I live with it every day."
Mrs Watt said she was shocked to hear it had happened again at the same hospital and
phoned Ms Whiteside to offer support.
"I wasn't going to speak out but if I do nothing I feel like everything I've been
through in the last eight months has been for nothing," she said.
"If I do step up it might just change something."
The protocols, which state women suspected of miscarrying should be transferred
immediately to a maternity ward, were the result of a government inquiry into the
case of Sydney woman Jana Horska, who miscarried in a toilet at Royal North Shore
Hospital in September 2007.
Mr Della Bosca said the protocols were about respect, dignity and caring and the
reports from the women were "very distressing".
"I am very disappointed and very sorry that these women and their families didn't
get the compassion and care they deserved," he said.
"Clearly we need to reissue the guidelines and audit their use."
Hunter New England Health chief executive Dr Nigel Lyons said he would be meeting
staff at the hospital on Monday to discuss the issues.
"I am extremely disappointed to hear other women have had a similar experience to
Jodie Whiteside at Maitland Hospital and I am very sorry these women were not
treated with compassion and care," he said.
"While we have made many changes, it is obvious that the guidelines are not being
adhered to all of the time.
"Clearly we need to seriously review the processes in place at Maitland Hospital and
educate the frontline staff and doctors about the guidelines that need to be
followed when women present to the emergency department with a suspected
miscarriage."
NSW Opposition health spokeswoman Gillian Skinner said she knows of another woman
who suffered the same outcome on two separate occasions and expects more women to
come forward with similar experiences.
"Is it a problem just at that hospital? Is this happening elsewhere and people are
just not speaking out?"