Midwives, senior doctors, health officials, and affected mothers gathered in Dunedin yesterday for the first of a nationwide series of workshops to improve maternity safety.
The focus is neonatal encephalopathy (NE), brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.
ACC convened the NE Task-force with the aim of reducing cases by 10% by 2021.
ACC senior injury prevention specialist Richard Greenwood said ACC accepted about 10 new NE cases per year, but the actual number occurring was higher.
NE is ACC’s most expensive group of claims on an individual basis. The cost of supporting a person with NE is estimated to range from $33 million to $55 million over a lifetime.
It is estimated there are about 70 cases of NE every year in New Zealand, and some could be prevented with better management and information sharing between health providers.
Mr Greenwood said the task-force comprised a mix of sector experts in clinical practice and health planning and a consumer representative. It was pushing for initiatives which cost the Government more in the short term.
‘‘Our job is to make it as difficult as possible to say no,’’ he said.
Jenn Hooper, of Hamilton, a campaigner for improved outcomes in maternity, is the consumer member, and attended the workshop.
The taskforce chairman is Chris Gudsell, a Hamilton QC.
Janine Bolton, a Dunedin mother whose daughter Daryl-Ann suffered brain damage in a botched birth, attended the workshop, along with more than 40 other people.
