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australian news: Finally ready for delivery: midwives through Medicare
http://tinyurl.com/au8jf
Finally ready for delivery: midwives through Medicare By Mark Metherell and Jacqueline Maley Sydney Morning Herald August 16, 2005 The Federal Government will for the first time consider extending Medicare to midwives - the bridesmaids of maternity care. The Minister for Health, Tony Abbott, has told advocates of midwifery he will consider paying midwives Medicare benefits if their patients have been referred by doctors. Midwives described Mr Abbott's gesture as a breakthrough. They have battled resistance from doctors and officials for federal recognition for many years. "For someone like Tony Abbott to use the words midwife and Medicare in the same sentence is an important new development," the executive officer of the Australian College of Midwives, Barbara Vernon, said yesterday. Dr Vernon said countries where midwives played a bigger role in managing pregnancy and childbirth had lower costs and fewer interventions by doctors, including caesarean deliveries. She said a greater role for midwives, particularly in country areas, would reduce the need for expectant patients to travel to bigger towns for childbirth - a situation blamed for several recent emergency births en route. The lack of Medicare payments, and difficulties securing medical indemnity cover, has largely prevented independent private practice by midwives and means most of Australia's 12,500 midwives are employed by hospitals. Mr Abbott's spokeswoman said he would examine the midwives' proposals "but has made no commitment". The leader of the Australian Democrats, Lyn Allison, who initiated a meeting last week with Dr Vernon and Mr Abbott, said Mr Abbott had acknowledged the merit in plans for a national maternity services policy and promised to ask his department to explore greater use of midwives. "This is a major breakthrough and I congratulate the Government on finally listening to women and giving them a choice," Senator Allison said. Shea Caplice has been a midwife for more than 20 years and estimates she has caught more than a thousand babies. But like other midwives she is not covered by Medicare, and since 2002 has not got medical indemnity insurance as a private practitioner. "It's been a long time coming," Ms Caplice said of the mooted changes. "Even podiatrists get access to Medicare, but not women having babies wanting a midwife." Without a Medicare provider number it is difficult to schedule even the most basic diagnostic tests, she said. "I love working with doctors but it seems to be a competition. It's not a competition; it's just basic health care." Ms Caplice has been appointed to co-ordinate a new home-birthing service at St George Hospital. She says it is proof of the continuing demand for midwifery. "Certainly Medicare numbers will streamline the service I provide and make it much more accessible for women, and that really is their right." The Australian Medical Association's spokesman on obstetrics and gynaecology, Andrew Pesce, said despite past resistance many doctors would accept a greater role for midwives, if doctors could still decide whether to keep riskier cases in their care. But Dr Kenneth Clark, an obstetrician from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, highlighted a "critical need" for debate within the profession and with the public before funding midwifery through Medicare. Government funding of midwives in New Zealand had limited women's choices, not expanded them, he said. The secretary of the NSW Midwives Association, Hannah Dahlen, said evidence increasingly pointed to midwives as the most appropriate carers for women during low-risk childbirths. Studies had shown midwife-led births had much lower rates of intervention, such as forceps delivery. Women reported higher satisfaction with the experience, and were more likely to breast-feed successfully for longer, she said. |
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arachne wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/au8jf Finally ready for delivery: midwives through Medicare By Mark Metherell and Jacqueline Maley Sydney Morning Herald August 16, 2005 The Federal Government will for the first time consider extending Medicare to midwives - the bridesmaids of maternity care. The Minister for Health, Tony Abbott, has told advocates of midwifery he will consider paying midwives Medicare benefits if their patients have been referred by doctors. Sounds good in theory but I'll believe it when I see it! There are way too many old obs who believe that midwives are too dangerous to even practice at all unless under a doctor! Jo (Mum to Will) |
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On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:54:23 +1000, arachne wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/au8jf Yay! It would be a huge step forward if that happens. Larissa |
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