Management at the Alexandra maternity hospital believe the Southern District Health Board is "really trying" to find the best location for a primary birthing unit in Central Otago but question the reliability of the data it is using.
Charlotte Jean Maternity Hospital director Roger O’Brien attended the SDHB meeting for health professionals in Cromwell last week.
He said growth projections for the Wanaka area put to the meeting predicted a slight reduction in the population of birthing-aged women until the year 2038.
"Since we have been here, there has been a massive growth in Hawea, Albert Town and Wanaka; we don’t have any information the population will continue to increase but we question where they got their data from."
He said the 2018 census results were not reliable.
"I think they have to look at a different model to what they have got at the moment," he said.
Data presented at the meeting did not include post-natal care.
Mr O’Brien said many women gave birth at the Queen Mary Maternity Centre in Dunedin but returned to the Charlotte Jean unit for post-natal care.
Charlotte Jean has lactation consultants and helped to set up the Central Otago Breast Feeding Service, he said.
"We would like to see post-natal care extended from 48 hours to 72 hours because the positive outcomes would easily pay off in the long term," he said.
Options for the future location of a new primary birthing unit have been narrowed down to four.
Options one and two involve a decommissioning of the Charlotte Jean Maternity Hospital, option three would retain Charlotte Jean and option four proposed the unit be co-located at Dunstan Hospital.
Mr O’Brien described the decision as "complex" because of the huge geographical area covered.
It should be determined on what model of maternity care best met "the needs of every woman in our community", he said.
Option one also involved a maternal and child hub in Alexandra offering ante-natal and post-natal support. Mr O’Brien said there had been no discussions with SDHB on whether Charlotte Jean would become that hub.
