Health Minister Nicola Roxon has announced the government will amend draft laws before parliament .. to make it clear nurses and midwives can only access the Medicare Benefits Schedule and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme .. if they work in collaboration with a doctor.
Private Midwives Association national president Liz Wilkes says Labor’s placing one profession at the mercy of another, claiming it makes a mockery of professional regulation in Australia.
She says many choices such as homebirth might be lost if doctors don’t enter formal agreements with midwives.
Homebirth Australia secretary Justine Caines says the government’s trying to make homebirths an administrative impossibility for women, labelling it a massive slap in the face for professional midwives and a major erosion of women’s rights.