Queensland mothers will provide valuable feedback over the next two months on the state’s maternity services, including what can be improved.
The 2018-19 Queensland Health Maternity Patient Experience Survey launches today (18 Feb) and will continue to mid-April 2019.
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Service Executive Director Kirstine Sketcher-Baker said more than 5000 mothers who gave birth in a Queensland public hospital would be selected at random for the phone and online survey.
“Maternity services are among the best in the nation and women can expect safe, world-class healthcare before, during and after they give birth,” Ms Sketcher-Baker said.
“Queensland Health has a strong focus on continual improvement and this survey is yet another tool that will help us deliver the best possible care to mothers and their babies.”
“The results of this survey will be invaluable in helping us ensure our maternity services are meeting the expectations of the community.
“We’ll be gathering feedback on mothers’ experience of maternity care across antenatal care, in-hospital care for the labour and birth and after the birth, as well as care after leaving hospital.”
The survey comes after research commissioned by Queensland Health shows 84 per cent of people who used public maternity services were satisfied with their experience.
The research, by Kantar Public, primarily targeted Queenslanders who have had a child in the past 18 months or were expecting or planning to have a child in the next 18 months.
It reveals 82 per cent of respondents agreed that the medical skills and knowledge of public midwives and nurses was of a high standard and 80 per cent agreed the same for doctors and obstetricians.
More than half preferred their baby be born in a public hospital and 78 per cent believed mothers and babies were as safe in public facilities as they were in private facilities.
About 73 per cent were satisfied with the quality of their local maternity services.
Respondents associated public maternity services with being caring, safe and accessible.
The research, which canvasses the views of more than 1200 people, also identified areas that respondents believed could be improved including providing more maternity staff and improving services in regional and remote areas.
Each Hospital and Health Service (HHS) will receive individual facility reports for their review so they can identify areas for improvement.
The survey will target mothers who gave birth and received care at one of Queensland’s public maternity hospitals between October and December 2018
