Re: [ozmidwifery] FW: [Maternitycoalitonmidwives] news for Vic midwives

[Aviva Sheb'a]

Sounds like 2003 has started well! Hooray! and Thank You to you all for doing such a wonderful, important, job. Aviva ----- Original Message ----- From: Robyn Thompson To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 9:10 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] FW: [Maternitycoalitonmidwives] news for Vic midwives This was quite a fruitful meeting, another two women attended alongside Anne-Louise Carlton (a mother not sure how old her baby is?) Louise Milne-Roch newly appointed CEO of the Nurses Board Victoria, in the job for just 8 days - came mainly as an observer but also to get a feel of the meeting content.  Anne Fuller Jackson also attended, she will be doing most of the research for the Discussion Paper to be put before Parliament in April.  They were a very interested group of women, quite understanding of the midwife role in different practice settings.  Would love Justine Caines to meet these women - my imagination is they would all gel well together. Will await the joint compilation of the meeting and then post it for all to read. The main emphasis for me was confirmation that common sense prevails - it was clear that the present professional indemnity saga was understood by these women.  Anne-Louise Carlton said while midwives do not have access to Professional Indemnity there is no intention for the Nurses Board Victoria to participate in deregistration. There was a lot of common sense discussion about the different roles of midwifery as they currently stand and how best to deal with these differences in the event of a separate Midwives Act.  A fall back position was addressed that gave credence to a Health Practitioners Act. For me it established the need for women to hear us and for experienced women (in childbirth) to make decisions for women at parliamentary level. Lots of healthy discussion and good political dialogue.  Congratulations to the very articulate consumer representative Leslie Arnott and her baby Clay who indulged in a long breastfeed, gurgled and farted a little then went off into a beautiful satisfied sleep.  I felt very proud of Leslie and her confident approach, eloquent in the placement of her points for the needs of women and babies. Just another point - Have also had a reply from my letter to Steve Bracks, Premier Vic will scan and post that soon also. Happy Birthdays to all and a special thought for Sue Cookson regards,    Robyn -----Original Message----- From: villagemidwife2002 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 8:18 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Maternitycoalitonmidwives] news for Vic midwives Dear all A group of MC members met with the Practitioner Regulation unit at the health dept today. We will put together a report of the meeting Anne-Louise Carlton is manager, and she is interested in legislative reform - even to the extent of a Midwives Act. She wants to get new legislation prepared for the Spring sitting of the parliament. A discussion paper on the review of health practitioner legislation will be prepared, followed by an opportunity for public consultation and submissions, and a round of consultations with key stakeholders. This will all happen in the near future. EVERYONE will need to respond. If you have an opinion that you would like to air on this list, now's the time.  The group who attended the meeting - Sue Budge, Robyn Thompson, Leslie Arnott (+ baby Clay), Pauline Ahearne and me -  all preferred to option of total reform and a Midwives Act. If you have copies of the current legislation governing midwifery in other countries [or States of Oz]RT (esp those with Midwives Acts), or know someone who could get hold of it, please chase it up, and let me know. There is a long way to go yet, and legislative reform is only one step in the total reform package that we want to see, but the meeting seemed very positive. Another matter to report is an interesting development in the professional indemnity insurance stuff. We have been assured at the meeting today that the legislation will not be further changed to make it a mandatory requirement for registration - that this will remain a 'discretionary' power that the regulatory authority has (ie Nurses Board). We have been told to seek clarification in writing from the Minister, which of course we will do. Yes Minister! I will be away for the next few days. We are renting Kerreen's place at Phillip Island. I received an up to date copy of the list of MCH coordinators for the State, so have attached it to the files on this site. I got it after being ticked off for hand delivering birth notification forms to the centres, rather than going through the coordinators! Stay strong Joy J To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://au.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.   ---   Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.445 / Virus Database: 250 - Release Date: 21/01/03