Dear List, The new federal health minister announced just prior to Xmas that she would be holding a national summit on the PI crisis for medical specialists early in the new year. It is imperative that midwives be considered in any discussion of subsidy/assistance whatever to obstetric specialists.
I have sent the following letter on behalf of the Maternity Coalition to the Minister. It would be helpful for other organizations to send their own letters on this issue to as a matter of urgency. regards Barb. The Hon. Senator Kay Patterson Minister for Health & Ageing Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 7 January 2002 Dear Minister, Re National summit on professional indemnity insurance Congratulations on your appointment as the Minister for Health and Ageing. I am writing in response to your recent announcement of your intention to hold a national summit on the issue of professional indemnity insurance for health professionals. The Maternity Coalition is a national non-profit umbrella organization of groups and individuals committed to improving maternity care for women during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. One of the key objectives of the Maternity Coalition is to work with governments and all relevant professionals to expand women�s access to a midwife-led model of care in which midwives, as autonomous professionals, provide primary care and support to women throughout pregnancy, birth and the newborn period. Midwife-led care has been recommended by the World Health Organization as the most cost effective and appropriate model of care for pregnant and birthing women. Research evidence in both Australia and overseas demonstrates that midwife-led care, where a woman receives true continuity of care from a midwife, lessens the need for costly interventions and improves outcomes. Yet in Australia, fewer than 10% of women have access to one on one care from a known midwife. The crisis in professional indemnity insurance has affected midwives as much as other health professionals offering maternity services. A majority of Australia�s independent midwives are being forced to cease practice due to the lack of affordable PI insurance. This contraction in midwifery services is occurring at a time when there is a pressing need for major expansion in midwifery services. Greater use of suitably qualified midwives to provide competitive best-practice care for healthy women would make a significant contribution to lessening the pressure on health budgets. As the Rocking the Cradle report found, maternity occupies the largest number of hospital bed days each year, let alone the escalating costs of unwarranted obstetric interventions. The Maternity Coalition is particularly concerned about the recent NHMRC Report on Maternal Deaths in Australia which showed a 70% increase in preventable maternal deaths in 1994-96. These deaths represent a dramatic reversal in the trend of declining mortality rates. Increases over recent years in the rate of caesarean sections (now around 20% nationally) was mooted by the NHMRC report as a contributing factor. Midwifery care of normal healthy women has been proven to result in fewer women needing caesarean sections. Midwives are experts in caring for women experiencing normal healthy pregnancies�the majority of women. The lack of access to PI insurance for midwives threatens to further undermine their ability to compete with specialists in the care of healthy women. This lack of competition is not in the interests of consumers and nor is it in the interests of government health funding agencies. The Maternity Coalition strongly urges you to include access for midwives to affordable Professional Indemnity insurance on the agenda for the national PI summit you have announced. The AHMAC has acknowledged the importance of this issue when it referred the problem of PI insurance for midwives to the Medical Indemnity Working Group. Any solution for addressing the professional indemnity crisis affecting obstetric specialists should be also be applied to midwives, to ensure that national competition policy imperatives are honoured. Considering the urgency of this matter and the proposed timeframe for the summit we request a response from you prior to the summit. We look forward to hearing of your thinking on this matter. Yours sincerely, Dr Barbara Vernon President The Maternity Coalition -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
