Mater Private Specialist Quick Find

News

Mater Mothers opens Queensland’s first 24/7 Pregnancy Assessment Centre

Monday 24 April 2017

Mater Mothers opens Queensland’s first 24/7 Pregnancy Assessment Centre

Mater Mothers’ Hospitals has opened Queensland’s first, purpose-built 24/7, Pregnancy Assessment Centre (PAC) to care for women with pregnancy complications from the very beginning of pregnancy through until six weeks after the baby has been born.

The opening of PAC on 27 April 2017 offers a specialist woman-centred model of care in a single location, where a woman can present at any time of the day or night.

Mothers, Babies and Women’s Health Services, Medical Director Dr Mike Beckmann, said that caring for women with a pregnancy complication from the beginning to the end of pregnancy in a single location is a very unique model of care.

“The environment we have designed has separate spaces for women presenting with different problems to enable us to tailor the care we provide,” he said.

The PAC has a specific area for early pregnancy assessment providing a private area for women who may be suffering bleeding in early pregnancy which is separate to women who may present later in pregnancy.

“An emergency department provides care for patients with all sorts of emergency.  But when it is not an emergency, this is not the ideal place to come.  There are few options for a woman experiencing early pregnancy bleeding or pain, concerned and worried at 2 am, and wanting to know if everything is going to be OK” Dr Beckmann said. 

“The Pregnancy Assessment Centre tries to turn all that around and says whether its 2 am or 2 pm, you can come here and we will try and provide that answer for you in an environment where the midwives, nurses and Obstetricians, are specialists in their field, and in an environment that is specifically designed to manage pregnancy complications.”

In preparation for the opening of the new centre, Mater undertook two days of simulations involving Mater doctors and midwives, and specifically trained Mater Volunteers as patients to replicate and manage a range of patient presentations.

Women can either call the Pregnancy Assessment Centre, or present to the centre if they have any pregnancy related concerns. General practitioners can also refer to the service.

Upon arrival at PAC, women will be assessed by a triage midwife and prioritised based on need rather than order of arrival. Mater is a provider of both public and private maternity services and women who present to the PAC can choose to be seen as a private patient or a public patient.

PAC is located on Level 5 of Mater Mothers’ Hospitals, Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane.

Archived news

View our online archive news articles.

  • Mater e-news and publications

    View past editions of Mater's newsletters and publications for the medical community

    Read more

  • Professional Development

    GP Education, Maternity Shared Care Alignment Program and Events.

    Read more

  • Featured Event

    Wednesday 27 March | Mater Private Hospital Redland

    Read more