We can’t afford to lose our local specialists

COMMENT | Caitlyn Spence

TO learn that Dr Wendy Hughes will no longer be rostered on to practice at the Mildura Base Hospital left me speechless.

Only 12 weeks prior she had delivered my daughter Grace and I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

Dr Hughes had been my doctor for my final few appointments and was my doctor of choice for my six-week check-up after the birth.

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It was, however, by pure coincidence that she was rostered on to work the day my daughter was born.

Ahead of the birth, I admittedly had high expectations and had a full A4 page birth plan and while most of it was out of my control, Dr Hughes and the midwives tried to follow it the best that they could and when the time came that things couldn’t be followed, she advised me of the best steps to take and I felt confident that she had made the right and necessary decisions.

It was obvious that her patients are her priority.

When another soon-to-be-mother was rushed into an emergency C-section at the same time I was just about ready to push, she let me know what was going on and I was told to wait until she was back, which ensured if anything was to go wrong she was there and was able to spring into action.

Thankfully that is exactly what happened.

When my daughter became stressed, Dr Hughes had my daughter delivered safely within minutes.

At my six-week appointment, we were able to discuss everything I was curious about during the birth but if a locum had delivered my baby, I would not have had the same opportunity.

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I wouldn’t have been able to have a follow-up appointment with them, which would mean those who I did see would only have notes to go from and not having been there to witness the birth.

After my final appointment I felt excited that Dr Hughes would most likely be my doctor for any future children.

I felt lucky to live in a town that had a doctor who lived locally, put her patients first and who had a brilliant skill-set but with this recent news my hopes have been met with disappointment.

It’s so important for our community to support our local specialists.

Without them we would need to travel to the capital cities to get the necessary support needed.

We need to act now to ensure we obtain these valuable resources for our community.