Australian Private Midwives Association: Senate Inquiry into AHPRA

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Senate Inquiry into AHPRA

Link here to the Senate Inquiry into AHPRA.

Submissions should be received by 14 April 2011.

All midwives in this country are registered and regulated through Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

The federal Opposition Health spokesman Peter Dutton MP has called for a Senate enquiry into the workings of AHPRA.

Many midwives, and women who employ us privately, are concerned about the process that has been implemented by AHPRA for midwives applying for notation on the Register as eligibile for Medicare provider numbers - a reform that was implemented by the government in November 2010. Submissions by midwives' organisations, individual midwives, and women who want midwives to attend them privately, will address the excessive and repeated delays in processing applications.

Women whose midwives are waiting for their notations of eligibility are, understandably, distressed. Clients of midwives who have Medicare Provider numbers are able to claim substantial rebate - estimated up to $1000 in total, on prenatal and postnatal care provided by the midwife. The failure of a midwife to achieve eligibility means that this amount of money, to which the women/clients are entitled, cannot be accessed.

Please note that there are Procedures to be observed by Senate Committees for the protection of witnesses.

Your comments here are welcome, as are your submissions to the Senate inquiry.

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WHO ARE WE?

The Australian Private Midwives Association represents midwives in private practice. The association is focused on the safety of women, the ability of women to access quality midwifery care across Australia and the partnerships between women and midwives. APMA supports women’s choice in maternity options within a framework of quality and safety and believes in women being able to access midwives in all settings. APMA unites all midwives seeking to provide continuity of care for women.

APMA strives to provide midwives in private practice with information relevant to their practice and advocacy in the political process.

Enquiries:
Joy Johnston joy@aitex.com.au
Marie Heath NSW and National 0407 266004
Clare Lane (Vic) 0416 130219

APMA POSITION STATEMENT on PLANNED HOME BIRTHS WITH A MIDWIFE

1. We support home birth with a midwife in attendance for women who have uncomplicated labours. 2. We support and adopt the International Confederation of Midwives’ (ICM) Definition of the Midwife (2011), which is foundational to all midwifery practice, including homebirth. 3. We support the right of every woman to access a midwife as the primary maternity caregiver who works in partnership with the woman throughout the episode of care, who is able to be the responsible professional in attendance at the birth either at home or hospital, and who is able to make appropriate referral and transfer of care when required. 4. We support the right of a midwife to practise privately in a fee-for-service or funded relationship with the client, or to take up employment. 5. We support only those regulatory restrictions that are able to pass the ‘public interest’ test: “How does this promote health and wellbeing in the mother and baby?” 6. We support an expectation of equity, including equal pay for equal work throughout a midwife’s scope of practice. Midwives who provide primary maternity care are entitled to the same public funding, the same opportunity to charge a fee-for-service, the same access to hospital referral, and publicly supported indemnity insurance, as medical practitioners providing the same maternity services. 7. We support processes by which midwives are able to gain experience and mentoring in order to commence and demonstrate competence in homebirth practice. 8. We support seamless and reliable processes by which midwives are able to make hospital bookings for women planning homebirth, and arrange transfer to the hospital in a timely way when needed.