SDHB launches review into roadside birth

The Southern District Health Board has commissioned an independent review into the circumstances which saw a Lumsden woman give birth in an ambulance on Sunday.

Organisation chief executive Chris Fleming told an SDHB commissioners meeting this morning that all parties disputing the level of maternity services in the Northern Southland town needed to get beyond "`he said,she said" arguments,and he hoped an independent review would provide clarity.

• Maternity care: SDHB 'will be held to account'
• Roadside birth: 'It could have been much worse'

Lumsden locals have been up in arms since the SDHB's region-wide review of maternity services recommended the Lumsden birthing centre become a maternal and child hub.

Mr Fleming also said he was expecting a separate report examining the entire review process to be delivered to him within a week.

Parliament's health select committee is today expected to decide what action to take in response to Clutha Southland MP Hamish Walker's petition calling for Lumsden Maternity Centre to be saved.