Letter sent to the Sydney Morning Herald: Dear Editor, The cries of outrage by obstetricians (SMH July 24) would be more believable if they quoted some accurate figures. The Federal Government's Inquiry into Compensation and Professional Indemnity in Health Care, insituted to investigate the real story behind insurance claims against doctors, found that far from being sued primarily by women angry about botched births, 80% of negligence claims against obstetricians arose from their gynaecological work. The recently published studies in the British Medical Journal that showed that women (the healthy, wealthy ones who can afford it) who choose private care from obstetricians in NSW face a huge risk of an adverse outcome compared with women who use public health facilities which are staffed primarily by midwives. Could it be that these same obstetricians who are moaning about higher insurance premiums (a handy tax deduction) could be over servicing women with unneccesary medical procedures so they can afford to pay their insurance premiums? Perhaps one solution would be to do less rather than more during labour and birth, thus reducing the risk of a bad outcomes and the resultant risk of being sued? Of course, if women were not so vulnerable to over servicing, which is often presented as a means of "saving the baby", they might wake up and discover that their best chance of having a healthy baby lies in choosing midwifery services, a fact heavily supported and encouraged by the World Health Organisation and numerous studies worldwide. Andrea Robertson -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
