10th Aug 2010: Leigh Parry all articles by this author
If your patient decides on a midwife-led home birth and asks for prescriptions, could you be legally liable if something goes wrong? A PREGNANT patient informs you she’s decided to employ a private midwife for a home birth and asks for a prescription for Syntocinon (oxytocin). Do you prescribe?
It is not a common request, but one that GPs are increasingly facing as the popularity of home births grows.
Midwives are able to legally administer Syntocinon but cannot prescribe it, until 1 November when changes to federal laws mean nurse practitioners will have limited access to the MBS and PBS.
Complicating the issue is the Federal Government’s new professional indemnity scheme for midwives, which came into effect on 1 July.
I have to ask the question; what is meaningful collaboration, if collaboration only means one way..... obstetrician to midwife? how legal is that?
Midwives work within a strict framework and adhere to the ACM Referral guidelines and the ANMC Codes... it is about time both the AMA and the government realise this....collaboration has to be a two way street.....
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