NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) announcing the new maternity services funding, which will result in major refurbishments to birthing suites at Royal Darwin Hospital. Photo: Lia Finocchiaro MLA/Facebook.
Maternity services at the Royal Darwin Hospital are to be boosted with a $10 million upgrade, after the NT’s Finocchiaro CLP Government secured an agreement with the Federal Government.
Under the agreement, the funding will go towards refurbishing birthing suites and the maternity ward more broadly.
Improvements to the birthing suites will provide private bathrooms for all eight of them, complementing a new three-bed assessment area and a private waiting space for mothers in labour. The parents’ kitchen will also be refurbished.
The funding will also provide essential bathroom upgrades and the installation of a general nursery in the maternity ward, and add a family waiting room outside the primary birthing and maternity suites.
A lactation room in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and an NICU staff bathroom will be other additional features.
“The CLP has been advocating for these upgrades with the Federal Government for some time, and we are pleased for Territory families that they are coming to fruition,” Minister for Health Steve Edgington said. ”This is a great outcome for the Territory.”
Maternity rooms and bathroom facilities will also be upgraded to accommodate up to 30 mothers at a time, and improvements will be made to the centralised foetal-monitoring system at Royal Darwin Hospital.
These systems will be implemented in all maternity centres across the NT for the first time, giving obstetricians and midwives across Katherine, Gove, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek the ability to monitor their patients in real time from supporting tertiary centres.
A bereavement room will also be added for families grieving the loss of a baby.
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said of the funding deal: “The Finocchiaro CLP Government is committed to delivering better healthcare for Territory families, and this is a great step forward following ongoing discussions with Canberra.
“I thank the Prime Minister for being here today and for listening to my government’s arguments for this funding on behalf of the Territory.”
