Boy am I livid! The local hospital is trying to revoke my midwife's hospital privileges. They don't seem to have solid reasons for doing so and it seems to be more of a witch hunt than anything else. I'm sending the following letter to the appeal board and the hospital. For links on what is going on:
Very one way bias
From someone who was at the hearing
My Letter:
Regarding Joanne Daviau’s Appeal
We are greatly saddened to have learned that St Joseph’s hospital is attempting to revoke midwife Joanne Daviau's hospital privileges. The reasons stated are that: she “is unavailable” and “has a lack of collegiality”. We found the opposite to be true.
Joanne was constantly available during my time under her care and often went above and beyond the call of duty. There were several times where we phoned her outside of “office hours” and our call was always returned within 15 minutes. In my last month of pregnancy, many times, when it looked like I might go into early labour, Joanne always contacted me to see if I was having any labour symptoms before leaving to go out. She always provided several numbers where we could reach her, and indicated she would forgo her personal plans if it looked like I might go into labour. Our prenatal appointments with Joanne were always in excess of an hour, with Joanne making sure all our questions and concerns were answered before we left. When I had problems with breastfeeding following the birth, Joanne spent hours at my house helping my daughter and I achieve successful breastfeeding. I probably would have given up had it not been for her patience and perseverance.
I would also like to take issue with the alleged lack of collegiality. While under her care I witnessed Joanne collaborating with many other health professionals: midwives, midwifery students, doulas, obstetricians and a neonatologist. On several occasions, when my problems fell outside her scope of practice, Joanne collaborated with two different obstetricians. There never seemed to be a problem with collaboration. We found Joanne to be consistently professional, competent, knowledgeable and available during my time as her client.
In addition, we are fairly new to the area and are not able to find a family doctor, by limiting the number of midwives with hospital privileges in the area, you will be greatly reducing a woman’s ability to access quality prenatal care.
The action of the hospital appears more of a personal vendetta against someone they may not particularly like, rather than an evidence based decision. The College of Midwives has stated that Joanne's level of care is up to standard and not in question. What kind of medical system do we have where women are going to be losing access to a very skilled professional due to hospital politics. This cannot be allowed to happen as we risk putting in jeopardy all the gains midwives have made in this province.
If you've had Joanne for a midwife and want to show your support please write a letter of support to the following:
Hospital Appeal Board
PO Box 9425
Stn Provincial Government
Victoria, BC
V8W 9V1
hab@gov.bc.ca
St. Joseph's Hospital
2137 Comox
Comox, BC
V9M 1P2
Att. CEO Michael Pontus
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1 comment:
Hey New Mom,
Good to see your post on this situation - I think it is really important that midwives support one another and that a midwife as professional and dedicated as Joanne be given support that she deserves. I'm sure many others would have given up in the face of this kind of opposition, and I admire her for keeping true to what she knows is right and fair. I was also at the Supreme Court, and reported on it in my blog. Several of Joanne's clients have added their comments, too. It's important that this situation is not kept silently behind closed doors, but for those who care about these issues to speak out.
Carol Sill
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