Australian Private Midwives Association: Communique from Health Ministers

Friday, August 10, 2012

Communique from Health Ministers

Standing Council on Health

COMMUNIQUÉ

10 August 2012

Australian Health Ministers met in Sydney today for a meeting of the Standing Council on Health (SCoH). The meeting was chaired by Dr Kim Hames, WA Minister for Health.

Professional Indemnity Insurance for Privately Practising Midwives.

Ministers agreed to an extension of the professional indemnity insurance exemption for privately practising midwives until June 2015. This will mean that privately practising midwives will continue to be covered by the national registration and accreditation arrangements.

The Commonwealth agreed to vary the determination on collaborative arrangements to enable agreements between midwives and hospital and health services.

Ministers agreed that WA would develop a paper on longer term arrangements and that this would be presented at the November meeting of Ministers.

Media contact: Peta Rule, 0428 923 661 (Dr Kim Hames Office)

[This message has been copied from the SCoH Communique.]

1 comment:

Joy Johnston said...: It's good that the exemption has been extended until 2015.
However...
I'm not sure that anything will change as far as collaboration is concerned. The communique indicates that the collaboration determination will be changed to "enable agreements between midwives and hospital and health services" as an alternative to the current system.
There are a few hospitals in Qld where progress is being made, but it seems that hospitals in the rest of the country can't work out how to allow a midwife to attend a woman privately (rather than as an employee of the hospital).
The AMA is outraged at the announcement. http://ama.com.au/node/8127; August 11, 2012 at 8:15 AM

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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.