----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 10:00 AM
Subject: Urgent PI Summit

 

The Hon. Senator Kay Patterson
Minister for Health & Ageing
Parliament House
CANBERRA  ACT  2600

Dear Minister,

Re National summit on health professional indemnity insurance

I am writing to seek your urgent assurance that professional indemnity (PI) insurance for midwives will be included on the agenda for the National
Summit on PI Insurance to be held on 23 April 2002 in Canberra.

Midwives in private practice are currently the only health professionals who have been forced to cease practice altogether due to the lack of PI insurance.  The withdrawal of this service affects more than 7,000 thousand Australian women and their families each year.  The loss of this care is contrary to leading obstetric
research which shows that midwife-led care is both cost-effective and world best-practice care for pregnant women.

The Australian Health Ministers acknowledged the importance of this issue last September when they referred the problem of PI insurance for midwives
to the AHMAC Medical Indemnity Working Group.  Yet, extraordinarily, we have information that suggests the Working Group has not considered the issue of
PI for midwives in the report it is preparing for the May Health Ministers¹ meeting. 

As a member of the Australain Society of Independant Midwives and the Australain College of Midwives I ( and my Australain midwifery colleagues) strongly urges you to include access for midwives to affordable Professional Indemnity insurance on the agenda for the 23 April Summit and to find workable solutions to restore private midwifery services. This is particularly crucial in regional areas where childbirth services are rapidly being shut down and women have no option but to travel long distances to have their babies.

To not commit yourself and the Federal Parliament  to address the lack of PI insurance for midwives, is to not only deny Australian families access to the world's best maternity care but also to limit the right of midwives to practise to their optimal  level.
I look forward to midwife and maternity consumer representatives receiving an invitation to this summit and a committment from your government to correct all inequities in this situation..

Yours sincerely,



Denise Hynd RM, RN, BApSc, IBCLC
10 April 2002

CC Meg Lees Democrat Health Spokesperson,
      Stephen Smith  Labor Heatlh Spokesperson,
        Senator B Brown

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