Hi all fellow listers.
For those who would like to read the SMH article Re: rural NSW OB's quitting
obstetrics - here tis.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0107/24/national/national8.html
Full text of article pasted below.
Yours in birth,
Tina Pettigrew
Birthworks
Independent CBE and aspiring B.Mid Midwife.
Convenor, Aust B. Mid Student Collective.
" As we trust the flowers to open to new life
- So we can trust birth"
Harriette Hartigan.
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Birth services in crisis as high fees force out doctor
By Mark Robinson, Health Writer
Maternity services in country NSW are set to be further restricted after the
only specialist obstetrician on the far South Coast decided to quit.
Dr David Saxton, based at Bega, resigned yesterday after nine years in the
job.
If he is not replaced immediately, his departure next month will mean women
in an area stretching from the Victorian border to the north of Bega face a
two-hour trip to Canberra or Moruya to have their babies.
Dr Saxton faced the prospect of his annual bill for insurance against claims
of medical negligence rising from $62,000 to $132,000 next year.
His wife, Mrs Kathy Saxton, said the pressure of being the only specialist in
an area with an annual birth rate of about 300 had become too much.
"He is 49 years old and he just can't do it any more," she said.
The exodus of obstetricians from the profession is a national problem. A
recent Australian Medical Association survey found more than half the 292
specialists that responded were thinking of quitting or had already done so.
But the situation is most acute in NSW where medical indemnity insurance
premiums are at their highest. There are no longer obstetricians in Orange or
Broken Hill offering services for private patients.
In Tamworth, obstetrician Dr Keith Hollebone said one of his colleagues would
quit next month because of the rising cost of indemnity insurance. It would
leave the city with only two specialists.
"We really do have a crisis on our hands," he said.
"Over the next 10 years probably the country obstetrician/gynaecologist will
go the way of the dinosaur."
The NSW AMA spokesman on the issue, Westmead senior specialist
obstetrician/gynaecologist Dr Phillip Cocks, said that as many as a quarter
of the doctors in the obstetrics training program were not planning to
practise in that speciality.
In 1999 the NSW Government agreed to pick up the bill for the part of the
indemnity insurance bill relating to obstetricians' duties in public
hospitals. This represents about half of their work.
That originally applied only to those agreeing to be paid sessional or hourly
rates, but has been recently extended in some individual cases to those paid
on a fee-for-service basis, Dr Cocks said yesterday.
In a move to reduce premiums, the Health Minister, Mr Knowles, got
legislation through Parliament last month to limit compensation payouts in
medical negligence cases.
The largest medical defence organisation, United Medical Protection, has
predicted the changes would cut claim costs by 15 per cent. But the chief
executive, Mr Mike McLeod, was reluctant to repeat predictions of a 12 per
cent average reduction in premiums. It would take a year to 18 months to
determine the full effect, he said.
Other factors, such as re-insurance costs in the wake of the collapse of HIH,
would have to be taken into account, he said.
A spokesman for Mr Knowles said the changes were designed to put "downward
pressure" on premiums, but there was no guarantee they would drop.
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