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Delivering a Healthy WA
Health Networks - Collaborative health care planning for the whole community

Womens and Newborns Health Network

Dr Janet Hornbuckle and Graeme Boardley, Co-Leads

Our 26-member Executive Advisory Group meets on a quarterly basis to plan and improve quality, safety, accessibility and continuity of maternity care and services for all women and babies in Western Australia.

Projects and activities involved with our network include:

Innovation and Research Symposium – 9 March 2012

8.30am–4.00pm Friday, 9 March 2012
Agnes Walsh House Lounge, King Edward Memorial Hospital

We invited clinicians, researchers, non-government organisations, community-based programs and policy-makers to attend our Innovation and Research Symposium, which reached capacity for attendance.

Our symposium was planned to share local research and innovative programs with a focus on improving outcomes for maternal and newborn care. Please find the program for the day here.

Videoconferencing is available so please contact healthpolicy@health.wa.gov.au if you would like to listen to one of the sessions.

National Maternity Services Plan

The National Maternity Services Plan has been endorsed nationally and is supported by the WA Minister for Health. It aims to improve, coordinate and ensure greater access to maternity services in Australia.

The plan provides strategies to change the way maternity care is provided in four key areas of access, service delivery, workforce, and strengthening infrastructure.

The Australian Health Ministers’ Conference is sponsoring projects at a national level. Work has progressed on the following projects:

  • The first 10 core maternity indicators have been endorsed.
  • The National Maternity Services Capability Framework has been finalised. It aims to guide health service planning and ensure the clinical requirements are matched by appropriate local health services to provide safe and accessible maternity services. It is currently undergoing an approval and review process.
  • The Australian Pregnancy Record is in the design phase.
  • The data-set for the Personal Health Hand Held Record is agreed and now in design phase.

The Year One Annual Report which further details progress on goals is available here.

If you would like further information or are interested in contributing to the WA plan email Ruth Young at Ruth.Young2@health.wa.gov.au or Health Networks at healthpolicy@health.wa.gov.au.

E-learning Packages

E-learning packages offer a flexible and convenient way to up-skill in areas that you may not be familiar with.

In some cases it is essential learning and must be done on an annual or a biannual basis. The majority of e-learning packages are administered by the State Obstetric Support Unit.

There are five e-learning packages:

Please click on the titles to link to the e-learning packages.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder update

One of the major priority projects of our sister network, the Child and Youth Health Network, is to implement the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Model of Care (PDF).

A Project Control Group has been established to plan and implement the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Model of Care and involves executive directors from:

  • Department of Health
  • Department for Communities
  • Drug and Alcohol Office
  • Department of Education.

For the latest news in this space please go the Child and Youth Health Network news page.

Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health Conference - Perth

28–29 June 2012

The Aboriginal Maternity Services Support Unit and the Aboriginal Child Health Project present the Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health Conference.

The conference is an opportunity for those who work in partnership with Aboriginal families to share stories about the successes and the challenges in closing the gap in Aboriginal maternal and child health. This conference aims to celebrate positive achievements in improving health outcomes for Aboriginal families.

If you are interested in attending or presenting at the conference or if you have a program or service that makes a difference to Aboriginal maternal and child health, we would like to hear from you.

Please contact the Aboriginal Maternity Services Support Unit via email amssu@health.wa.gov.au or phone (08) 9340 1555, or download the flyer here.

Publication of interest

Australia’s mothers and babies

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released Australia’s mothers and babies 2009 (external site) in December 2011.

Key findings included an increase in birth numbers, the average age of women who gave birth was increasing steadily, but that there was a fall in the rate of females aged 15–44 in the whole population who gave birth.

View the full NetNews summary | Health Networks homepage