GIMLI, Man. – Manitoba doctors should be protected from malpractice lawsuits so that rural hospitals can keep delivering babies, the Manitoba Women’s Institute decided at its annual meeting.
Unless something is done to protect doctors from possible lawsuits, the days of delivering a baby in rural Manitoba may be near an end. Helen Rigby, a Killarney woman, said a no-fault medical system, like the auto insurance programs some provinces have, would make rural doctors feel more secure.
Rigby said rural people across Canada are facing the same problem. As rural populations decline, there are fewer people needing hospital care. Doctors in rural areas do fewer of every type of operation and specialized facilities aren’t available.
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That creates poor medical services for people who live in rural areas and discourages other people from moving there.
Doctors are scared to treat people if specialized facilities aren’t available because they could be sued if complications arose, Rigby said.
A woman from Pine Falls said babies are no longer delivered at her local hospital, which is separating mothers from their families and creating long ambulance journeys.
Some MWI members questioned the idea of a no-fault system, worrying it might not protect patients.
Rigby’s resolution also called for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba to crack down on doctors who provide poor or incompetent service.
“Like any other union, they’re very lax in doing it,” she said.
MWI members debated the resolution for an hour. Most agreed rural doctors and hospitals need more opportunity to continue providing basic medical operations, but some were unsure how to best achieve that goal.
MWI members passed a resolution calling for a no-fault system and for encouraging the college to get tough with bad doctors, but cut out a section calling for rural doctors to get annual practice sessions in city hospitals so they can enhance their skills.
Rigby said doctors are also reducing the services they offer in rural Manitoba because their college does not want them to perform operations they seldom do.
“They’re not giving them a chance to do it,” said Rigby.
“(The college) is discouraging doctors from delivering babies in rural hospitals …. They’re saying they’re not delivering enough babies.”
Rigby said if rural doctors spent a few days per year at an urban hospital, they would increase their experience in procedures like childbirth and would be skilled enough to perform those duties in the country. This idea was passed to the MWI’s executive to decide whether to follow it up.
