Access to maternity services in Victoria is not equitable, argues this report.

Planning is critical to the delivery of effective, accessible maternity services. However, shortcomings in the Department of Health’s planning approach have limited its understanding of maternity capacity in Victoria. As a result, the department’s planning decisions are not based on system-level knowledge of maternity service capacity. More positively, the department is now beginning to gather information on the maternity system which will allow it to reliably identify gaps in service delivery.

Access to maternity services for antenatal, labour and birth, and postnatal care is not equitable. This relates to a number of factors including a lack of state-level planning of maternity services, different approaches by health services in delivering care, and variable access to Commonwealth services through general practitioners. In particular, women at audited hospitals in metropolitan growth areas face increased costs and delays in accessing antenatal appointments due to fewer publicly available services.