By James Fettes
A new mother has accused staff at Canberra’s Centenary Hospital for Women and Children of leaving her in blood-soaked sheets for more than an hour and a half after giving birth.
Tip Kilby gave birth to her daughter Sophia at the hospital late last month.
Her husband Matthew said she suffered a massive bleed, but staff did nothing to clean the mess.
“All the midwives disappeared, the doctor … and Tip’s just laid there with this little baby on her chest,” he said.
“She’s just lost a litre of blood and there’s pools of blood underneath her. The little baby’s leg and feet are in it.”
Mr Kilby said he did not blame the nurses because it was clear they were overworked.
"The little baby's legs and feet are in it." image supplied
"They're frantic, they're almost in tears, because they can see the problem but they're just understaffed," he said.
The Centenary Hospital is no stranger to controversy.
In 2013, a review found the hospital had not planned for a spike in births and was struggling to cope with demand.
The following year the hospital's teaching accreditation was put at risk by The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
While last June, the ACT Health Minister Simon Corbell ordered a review into allegations of bullying at the hospital.
Mr Kilby said he believed his and his wife's experience was indicative of a shift in medical care across the country.
"It's like a factory farm, it's not a hospital, it's not a place of care or nurturing," he said.
"It's not a society I want to live in, where we can't respect the place where life starts."
Mr Corbell and the hospital have been contacted for comment.
This post originally appeared on ABC News.
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Top Comments
How many people who have private insurance elect to be admitted as a public patient when going to a public hospital? Lots I bet. It costs nothing to be a private patient in a public hospital, your health fund pays the hospital for your stay Rather than it coming out of the hospitals budget.
This can't help.
not unusual...a friend d was left on the bed with her birth sheesh in the delivery room overnight because the didn't have space. I'd be more surprised I'd this didn't happen, particularly in public hospitals with funding and staffing issues.