Rural doctors welcome re-start on National Maternity Services Framework

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) and Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) have strongly welcomed agreement by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC) to start afresh on the development of an important Framework that will guide future maternity care policy in Australia.

Importantly, a new draft of the National Maternity Services Framework will be undertaken only after wide-ranging consultation with key health sector stakeholders.

Many organisations, including RDAA and ACRRM, had serious concerns about the lack of consultation underpinning the initial Draft Framework, and therefore also about the resulting content.

At a national workshop held last week, a wide range of groups representing doctors, nurses, midwives and health consumers met to outline their concerns to representatives from Queensland Health, the lead agency for the development of the Framework.

In light of this feedback, Queensland Health representatives recommended to AHMAC that the current process for developing the Framework should be terminated, and replaced by a more substantial consultation phase and a complete re-drafting of the Framework.

RDAA Vice President, Dr John Hall, said: "RDAA and ACRRM were very concerned there had been no specific consultation with rural clinicians, no recognition of the role of procedural GPs in rural maternity services, nor any mention of the guidelines developed by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), the organisation that trains the procedural GPs and specialists in this field.

"With over 34,000 babies born each year in locations classified as outer regional, remote and very remote, it is essential that rural maternity service models are supported as part of the National Maternity Services Framework - and that the doctors who provide care as part of these services are closely consulted in its development.

"It is great to see AHMAC responding to the concerns not only of doctors - but also of nurses, midwives and health consumers - by agreeing to a new process that will better reflect the views of all stakeholders.

"We will be particularly keen to ensure that the views of rural women, and the doctors and other health professionals who provide much-needed maternity and obstetric care in the bush, are reflected in the new Draft Framework."

ACRRM President, Associate Professor Ruth Stewart, said: "It is great to see AHMAC respond to the concerns of health sector stakeholders, by re-establishing the consultation phase for the Framework and committing to develop a completely new Draft Framework.

"ACRRM and RDAA were significantly concerned that the important role of the procedural GP in rural maternity services was largely ignored in the Framework, despite these doctors being essential to the sustainability of these services in many rural communities.

"In many rural and remote locations, the ongoing provision of quality maternity services is only possible because highly skilled Rural Generalist Doctors, with procedural skills in obstetrics and anaesthetics, are working closely with other health professionals as part of a dedicated and highly skilled maternity care team."