Subj: RE: Midwives lose their Professional Indemnity Insurance
Date: 19/07/01 1:57:22 PM AUS Eastern Standard Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Stott Despoja, Natasha (Senator))
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Murphy, Emma (Sen N. Stott Despoja))
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ('[EMAIL PROTECTED]')
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Thank you for your email.
The Democrats, through our State Spokesperson, the Hon. Sandra Kanck MLC,
have been very active on issues relating to midwifery, including, most
recently, the decision of Guild Insurance to cease offering insurance cover
for midwives.
I have attached the text of a press release issued last week by Ms Kanck,
for your interest.
Yous sincerly,
Emma Murphy
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Thursday 12th July 2001
DEMOCRATS DELIVER SOLUTION TO MIDWIFERY CRISIS
The Australian Democrats are calling on the State government to provide
indemnity insurance to SA midwives to protect the rights and choices of SA
birthing women.
"The recent decision by Guild Insurance to stop providing insurance cover
for midwives has serious implications for the profession not to mention the
health and safety of mothers and babies," says Sandra Kanck, Democrat Health
spokesperson.
"Birthing women who have chosen a continuity-of-care model could now be left
out in the cold with their midwife unable to care for them when they deliver
their baby at home or in hospital or in a birthing centre.
"It is also a blow to the profession which was offering women choices
outside the current medical based model.
"The Liberal Government which provided an indemnity insurance scheme for
doctors to maintain their practice in rural and regional areas can offer the
same cover for South Australian midwives.
"Dean Brown has advocated community midwifery for the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital so it is now time for him to put his money where his mouth is.
"The Democrats once again call for the capping of medical malpractice
payouts as a solution to easing the crisis in medical and health services
across the state.
"A capping of payouts will reduce insurance premiums making insurance
affordable for all health practitioners.
"This is an opportunity for the government to recognise midwifery for what
it is: the best form of care for birthing women and their babies."
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, 14 July 2001 10:58 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Midwives lose their Professional Indemnity Insurance
Senator Natasha Stott Despoja
Parliamentary Leader Australian Democrats.
Dear Senator Stott Despoja,
I write to you today with a heartfelt plea for your assistance in bringing
to
the attention of the Australian public, the current crisis facing midwifery
in this country.
Due to a decision by Guild Insurance, the collective insurer for Midwives in
Private Practice (MIPP) here in Australia not to renew professional
indemnity
insurance for MIPP, midwives are currently having to close their practices.
In
Canberra, one of the midwives effected by this decision, her policy has now
run out and she has been forced to tell 12 of her pregnant clients that they
must make alternative arrangements and cease practice. Another's policy runs
out in September and another 80 or so midwives across Australia will face
the
same difficult decision as their policies run out during the year.
This decision to withdraw insurance from MIPP is a huge lack of recognition
and respect for midwifery as an autonomous profession, which has far
reaching
implications for ALL women and midwives - not just the MIPP and the
homebirth
community.
Guild's decision to withdraw insurance coverage for MIPP flies in the face
of
the provision of culturally sensitive health care. Under both State and
Commonwealth Cultural Diversity Charters the governments of this country
outline their responsibilities to provide health services which are
accessible to a culturally diverse society as well as sensitive and
responsive to diversity. In regard to birthing, the government is failing
its
responsibilities.
Many women have strong personal, cultural or spiritual reasons for choosing
a home birth. For them the hospital system is unable to accommodate and
validate their beliefs and values about birth. This may include women who
come from non Anglo-Celtic cultures; women from diverse spiritual
backgrounds; women who have been sexually abused and are traumatised by the
impersonal, interventionist nature of hospital birth; people who have had
traumatic hospital experiences in the past; and lesbian parents who find
that the hospital system does not accommodate or respect their lifestyle
choices. The governments of this country have a responsibility to provide a
range of health care choices that accommodate and support this diverse group
of women.
The homebirth movement here in Australia is still considered a radical,
questioning and an independent movement outside of medical control and its
always been a thorn in the obstetric side and subject to a great deal of
attention, scrutiny and anticompetitive behaviour. However, where such
options are available universally (eg Netherlands and New Zealand) these
nations have the lowest levels of mother and newborn morbidity and mortality
which are extra health cost savings to the accompanying lower levels of
interventionist pregnancy and childbirth
care. Moreover, historically we know that many of the improvements in
maternity care have been born from the homebirth movement. So to dismiss
this
issue or to shrug it off as something that only affects homebirth midwives
and their clients is a HUGE mistake.
Homebirth needs to exist for the benefit of ALL, not just the few that
choose
it, because out of this movement we have another model by which to compare
the obstetric model, and measures by which to demand greater accountability
from the medical profession and evidence for continued improvements
for mainstream maternity care. Once you recognise this it becomes apparent
that the withdrawal of professional indemnity insurance from MIPP is just
the
tip of the iceberg and actually represents the largest assault on the
autonomy of midwifery this country has seen and THIS THEN AFFECTS ALL
MIDWIVES AND ALL WOMEN - NOT JUST THE HOMEBIRTH COMMUNITY.
THIS IS A NATIONAL ISSUE. It means that women will no longer be able to
choose to engage a midwife privately to provide care for their pregnancy
and births unless they choose a practitioner who is uninsured (which is not
in anyone's interest, midwife or consumer). Moreover, the decision by
insurers denying/refusing to insure MIPP, is to effectively, slam the door
shut on midwifery as an autonomous profession in this country, relegating
midwifery to be forever controlled by the medical fraternity. This has
ripple
effects into EVERY other facet of midwifery practice. It will eventually
effect EVERY MIDWIFE in her capacity to work as a midwife 'with woman' as it
effectively undermines EVERY midwife's status and claim to autonomous
practice as the health care professional that she is, irrespective of where
she provides midwifery care. Further more, while the majority of midwives
may
work in hospitals and have their liability underwritten by state
governments,
many midwives also choose to have PI outside of this as well - independent
of
their employers interests!
The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a statement on care in normal birth
(WHO Geneva 1999) states that "the midwife appears to be the most
appropriate
and cost effective type of health care provider to be assigned to the care
of
normal pregnancy and normal birth, including risk assessment and the
recognition of complications." This country has seen a plethora of
government
reports, State Ministerial reviews and Senate enquires into maternity
services, which have all confirmed this statement by the WHO and which all
called for further expansions of the
midwifery profession's involvement in the provision of maternity care as
lead
care providers for the majority of pregnant and birthing women.
The decision by Guild to withdraw professional indemnity insurance from MIPP
effectively wipes out further development of midwifery models of care which
further
restricts women in their choice of birth place and caregiver. So to argue
that this is an issue that just effects 80 midwives and the 1% of women who
choose to birth at home in this country is just ridiculous and will surely
then see the demise of midwifery as we know it in this country.
Adjunct to this issue, powerful people and their institutions keep getting
away with slandering midwives and their profession without calls to put up
or
shut up. Just recently in a report on this issue in the Sydney Morning
Herald, (Sat July 7 2001) Mr David Brown, General Manager of Guild Insurance
publicly stated that midwifery is "a highly litigious area", offering no
evidence of proof for such statements and contrary to the findings of the
National Professional Indemnity Review -Tito Report 1995. Mr. Brown should
be
made account for his words or suffer the consequences of defaming of the
midwifery profession.
AMA president Karen Phelps hits the Federal Health Minister Michael
Wooldridge
with a threat of legal action after he questions her qualifications to
practice medicine and its front page news in every newspaper and TV channel
in this country, right down to their menu and dessert choices at their even
more publicly viewed reconciliatory luncheon !!!!
Mr Brown publicly defames the whole of the Australian midwifery profession
and no one gives it a second thought !!
This issue needs to be brought to the forefront of public awareness and be
dealt with once and for all. We require your assistance and those of your
team at the Australain Democrats to do this. We need someone to listen and to
cotton
on to the great conspiracy that is denying Australian women and their
families the right to choose for themselves how, where and with whom they
birth their children.
Yours in birth,
Tina Pettigrew
Birthworks
Independent CBE and aspiring B.Mid Midwife.
Convenor, Aust B. Mid Student Collective.
tel: 0402677351
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
" As we trust the flowers to open to new life
- So we can trust birth"
Harriette Hartigan.
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From: "Stott Despoja, Natasha (Senator)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sender: "Murphy, Emma (Sen N. Stott Despoja)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: Midwives lose their Professional Indemnity Insurance
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 13:56:47 +1000
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