Budgets cuts are to blame for "an incredibly distressing" case where a woman was forced to deliver her own baby in a Sydney hospital, the NSW opposition says.
The woman from Mount Druitt was in the maternity suite at Blacktown Hospital when she gave birth alone in the early hours of Wednesday morning (local time).
It's been reported that the woman was forced to take painkillers from her own handbag to ease the pain of labour.
She had first presented to the hospital in labour on Tuesday morning but was told to go home about lunchtime as she was still some way off giving birth.
The woman refused and was moved to a maternity ward, where she gave birth to a daughter on her own the following morning.
It was allegedly up to 10 minutes before nursing staff arrived, news.com.au reports.
Opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said other patients in the room came to the woman's aid after she called out for help.
"Other patients in the room had to help before medical assistance finally came after the woman had already given birth," he said in a statement.
"This is an incredibly distressing case and the health minister needs to explain how on earth this was allowed to happen.
"It is completely unacceptable for a woman to have to give birth unattended in a NSW hospital, not to mention incredibly dangerous."
Mr McDonald said hospital and medical staff were under more pressure than ever because of the O'Farrell government's $3 billion funding cut to the health system.
"Health workers are telling me they are being forced to do more with less," he said.
"I fear we are only going to see more cases of patients receiving inadequate medical care because funding and staff are being cut from our hospitals across the state."
