Fewer docs willing to handle obstetrics
Without the current maternity clinic at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital there will be fewer doctors offering obstetrics, and their services could impact the whole practice, says Dr. Gerry Prince, who helped establish the clinic 17 years ago.
Prince says only six of the current clinic physicians are willing to continue providing obstetrics care from their family practice.
The clinic currently handles about 600 deliveries a year.
“None of our physicians would be willing to take on 100 deliveries a year in addition to their current community practices,” said Prince. “Two of our physicians don’t have full-time practices.”
Without a maternity clinic, a physician would have to choose whether to leave a day without appointments at his/their family practice or book appointments for patients knowing they may be called away to deliver a baby. The patients in the waiting room would then have their appointments abruptly cancelled while the doctor rushed off to the hospital, said Prince.
At the Family Medicine Maternity Clinic there is a schedule where doctors take turns at being on call. They know in advance when they will be on call and do not book appointments that day.
A spokesperson for Alberta Health Services says Medicine
Hat and Brooks are unique across the province in having a maternity clinic in the local hospital. This is not required in places such as Red Deer, Grande Prairie or Lethbridge.
Prince says the clinic was established to address a shortage of doctors willing to do obstetrics in this region. It was not financially feasible to take time away from their own clinics. He says innovative thinking and changes were needed to make the service financially neutral so that doctors were not out of pocket.
Some community physicians who might be willing to provide prenatal care do not have hospital privileges and have not provided prenatal or obstetric care for years, he said.
“If one of their patients presented at the hospital part way through pregnancy, who would take care of them?” asks Prince. “The family doctor might not be able to come to the hospital, and the hospital physician would not have information about the pregnancy. Not ideal.”
Community physicians doing maternity care under 20 weeks will have no issues with liability, but with the clinic closing, they will need to expand their liability insurance to provide care later into pregnancy. Currently, the liability reimbursement program would cover the extra costs, but many physicians are not willing to accept the increased risk.