PIPER Perinatal is a state-wide service which provides accessible and timely expert advice to health care providers for high-risk obstetric care. This advice is provided by experienced consultant obstetricians from the Level 6 maternity/newborn hospitals in Melbourne.

Contact PIPER perinatal to:

• Obtain assistance with arranging emergency interhospital transport (mother and / or newborn).
• Speak to a Perinatal or Neonatal consultant regarding management options.
• Gain access to evidence-based clinical guidelines for care in urgent perinatal situations.
• Request assistance with organising an appropriate higher level maternal or neonatal bed
• Access Bed state information (REACH)

In utero transfer

• Low risk in-utero transfers can be safely arranged and carried out following direct communication between the referring and receiving hospital.
• More complex transfers are best coordinated through PIPER perinatal.
• Delays in bed finding should not delay the transfer.
• It is important that the decision to transfer balances the risks to both mother and baby.
• When dilemmas in decision-making arise, input may be required from multiple groups: eg Obstetricians, Neonatologists, transport personnel (medical and ambulance) and others. This is best achieved through a conference call facility.

PIPER perinatal provides

• clinical advice to health care providers.
• enables decision-making in regard to the need for perinatal transfer and the urgency with which this needs to be effected.
• where necessary, to facilitate access to a bed in a maternity service able to provide the required level of care for the mother and, if delivery is expected, for the baby.

PIPER Perinatal differs from the other two sections of the Service as we do not perform patient retrievals. Rather PIPER Perinatal relies on the ambulance service (principally the Ambulance Victoria paramedics), but on occasion the Adult Retrieval Victoria (ARV), to provide a team of medically qualified intensivists who may be called upon to perform in utero transfers.

Staff and organisation

PIPER Perinatal is staffed by highly experienced obstetric consultants and nursing staff who coordinate referrals.