Fw: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives - for distribution
- Original Message - From: Denise Hynd [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Bronwyn CMWA Keys [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 3:33 PM Subject: Re: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives - for distribution Dear All Feel free to adapt my letter as below Denise Mr Brian Benger National Manager Guild Insurance Locked Bag 7 HAWTHORN VIC 3122 12 July 2001 Dear Mr Benger, I am writing to express my disappointment at the decision and manner in which Guild Insurance is to cease insuring independent midwives for the following reasons; Firstly I know that this arrangement with the Australian College of Midwives was made in concert with the Australian College of Nursing and the Australian-New Zealand Mental Health Nurses Association, yet it appears to be only the midwives Guild Insurance is ceasing to insure! Secondly I understand that many of the midwives who are affected by this decision have heard news of it through either the media or their colleagues and some through anxious clients being informed by the former! Thirdly because of your involvement with midwives and their professional organisation your company must be aware of the many of the professional and social obstacles Australian midwives and families who choose to provide/access safe responsible homebirth have and continue to encounter, yet you gave them no notice of your intention to create another! Fourthly this decision not only restricts the future legal practice of 80+ professionals but also places them at multiple risks should they continue to meet their present agreements with pregnant women due to birth before an alternative insurer can be found. Fifthly your company should also be cognisant of the limited and prohibitive options for midwives needing or wishing to stay insured but again you have taken this action with no notice. Sixthly you take an action which is contrary to the research substantiated social, health and therefore financial benefits of midwifery options of care, social capital benefits for all including the insurance industry! Finally I am disappointed that Guild has contributed to the general misinformation and scare campaign about birth being a highly litigious area (your General Manager, Mr David Brown's statement in The Sydney Morning Herald) without substantiation and contrary to the findings of the National Tito Report. Rather your company should be aware and promoting the reality that whenever families have been able to equitably access midwifery options of care they have done so in numbers which usually exceed supply (eg Community Midwifery Program WA, most Australian birth centres and midwifery team projects)! Additionally 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 extras health cost savings to the accompanying lower levels of interventionist pregnancy and childbirth care. It is a sad indication of the short sighted nature and management of the insurance industry and of your company in particular that you abandon insuring the most cost effective maternity care practitioners, as recognised by international research and the WHO, because currently you are making insufficient profits from them! Thus I urge you to reconsider your decision and return to support the right of birthing families to low intervention, women centred options of care. Yours sincerely Denise Hynd - Original Message - From: Johnston [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: ozmidwifery list (E-mail) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 11:55 AM Subject: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives - for distribution ***The person who sends this should add their own contact details if they are prepared to speak to the politician or media or whoever it is sent to. A joint statement by consumer and professional groups: The Maternity Coalition Inc, Australian Society of Independent Midwives, and the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services. PRESS RELEASE 14 July 2001 Re: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives Midwifery practice and the options women have for birth have been thrown into chaos by the crisis caused by the withdrawal of Guild Insurance from midwife PI Insurance policies. This is an issue that will affect all midwifery. The impact of this crisis will be to disadvantage women and their families across the country, as midwifery services will be withdrawn and further marginalised. We seek immediate intervention from both federal and state governments, to enable midwives to continue practising. Many concessions have been made in recent months to obstetric models of care, encouraging pregnant women to give birth in private hospitals, and promising to reduce the gap in rebates for doctors' fees. At the same time the basic option
Re: Fw: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives - for distribution
Fantastic letter Denise 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. --- -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives - for distribution
***The person who sends this should add their own contact details if they are prepared to speak to the politician or media or whoever it is sent to. A joint statement by consumer and professional groups: The Maternity Coalition Inc, Australian Society of Independent Midwives, and the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services. PRESS RELEASE 14 July 2001 Re: Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance for midwives Midwifery practice and the options women have for birth have been thrown into chaos by the crisis caused by the withdrawal of Guild Insurance from midwife PI Insurance policies. This is an issue that will affect all midwifery. The impact of this crisis will be to disadvantage women and their families across the country, as midwifery services will be withdrawn and further marginalised. We seek immediate intervention from both federal and state governments, to enable midwives to continue practising. Many concessions have been made in recent months to obstetric models of care, encouraging pregnant women to give birth in private hospitals, and promising to reduce the gap in rebates for doctors' fees. At the same time the basic option of continuity of care from a known midwife - THE model that is strongly supported by research evidence - is being withdrawn. This is totally unacceptable. It defies logic, removes the midwife's livelihood, is not in the interests of the consumer, and is causing great distress to women who have made plans to give birth in the care of a midwife. Signed by Joy Johnston, a midwife representing the Maternity Coalition Inc [Tel: 03 9808 9614] Robin Payne, a consumer representing the Maternity Coalition Inc [Tel:03 9380 2863] Jan Robinson, a midwife representing Australian Society of Independent Midwives [Tel: 02 9546 4350] Toni Cannard, a consumer representing Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services [Tel: 03 3265 4137] Fact sheet: * Birth is not an illness. Internationally accepted best practice standards for optimal maternity services promote care by a known midwife during pregnancy, birth, and early parenting. This is fundamental to the definition of a midwife: one who provides primary care for women throughout the pregnancy and birth, and who collaborates with other practitioners (such as obstetric specialists) when a woman requires specialist or secondary levels of care. * The focus of the midwife's care is the woman, as an individual. The wellbeing and safety of the woman and her baby are paramount, and data from Australian and international reporting support midwifery care as protecting the safety of the woman and child. * Australian women have very limited access to the optimal standard of care. This is due to many social and professional factors, including the progressive medicalisation of pregnancy and birth over many years, together with the government funding monopoly that supports medical primary care and excludes most midwifery options of care. * A recent Australian Society of Independent Midwives (ASIM) survey of members revealed most of the membership was insured with Guild; two have been without insurance since their policies expired recently, and the rest will gradually become uninsured as their policies expire. A small proportion of ASIM midwives are insured with ANF (Australian Nursing Federation) Victoria and so far they are unaffected. There were five members who carried no professional insurance whatsoever. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN INSURANCE RUNS OUT? For those midwives no longer insured, there are two alternatives; * cease their private clinical practice, thereby requiring the women booked with them to make other arrangements, as well as the midwives losing their livelihood. * continue to practice without PI insurance ... this will mean that midwives who did have visiting/admitting rights in hospitals will no longer be able to attend their clients in hospitals and therefore reduce women's choice of birth venues to homebirth only. If an Independently Practising Midwife (IPM) always acts as a reasonable midwife would in any situation then they are unlikely to be a victim of a malpractice suit. However, the person who ultimately suffers when there are adverse outcomes is the woman who has a damaged baby and if there is no insurance the woman has little hope of any financial assistance for the rest of her baby's life. * We seek immediate action to address this crisis. Despite the best efforts of competent professionals in all settings (hospitals, birth centres and home), the unpredictable nature of birth, and of life itself, means that there may be adverse outcomes. We recommend government insurance arrangements that are made available to all who experience the dreadful cost of birth trauma! Women (and their families) deserve support through public insurance if they are the victim of bad outcomes from encounters with any health professionals. -- This mailing list is
