After all the in house fighting and everyone saying we couldn’t or wouldn’t get an exemption it seems that it’s in the pipe line.

JOINT COMMUNIQUE

4 September 2009

Australian Health Ministers met in Canberra today to discuss a range of issues affecting the national health system. The meeting was chaired by ACT Minister for Health, Katy Gallagher.

Homebirth

Health Ministers agreed to a transitional clause in the current draft National Registration and Accreditation Scheme legislation which provides a two year exemption until June 2012 from holding indemnity insurance for privately practising midwives who are unable to obtain professional indemnity insurance for attending a homebirth.

Additional requirements to access the exemption will include;

• A requirement to provide full disclosure and informed consent that they do not have professional indemnity insurance.
• Reporting each homebirth
• Participating in a quality and safety framework which will be developed after consultation led by Victoria through the finalisation of the registration and accreditation process.

These provisions will only apply to midwives working in jurisdictions which do not prohibit such practice as at the date of the implementation of the scheme.

Sounds Good but seems to me the devil may be in the detail here. PARTICIPATING IN A QUALITY AND SAFETY FRAMEWORK. Does this me the SA homebirth Policy or something similar. Why is it led by Victoria? Is it because they have an antihomebirth mentality? Let’s hope not.

Looking forward to Canberra more than ever. It is on the one hand what I’ve said we need all along. However I think that offering a framework that is not woman friendly is once more not in the public interest. What would I know!

Related posts:

1. Quality and Safety Framework
2. The College of Midwives
3. Exemption 2
4. Brief Update Before Dawn Of New Blog
5. Guidelines for midwives insurance