Eligibility
From the 1st November 2010 the Australian Government introduced Medicare Eligibilty for privately practicing midwives.
I am the first resident Independent Midwife in the Blue Mountains to achieve this Medicare Eligibilty.
The requirements for the eligibility are listed below.
Requirements
To be entitled to be identified as an eligible midwife, a midwife must be able to demonstrate, at a minimum, all the following:
(a) current general registration as a midwife in Australia with no restrictions on practice
(b) midwifery experience that constitutes the equivalentof three years’ full-time post initial registration as amidwife
(c) current competence to provide pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal care to women and their infants
(d) successful completion of an approved professional practice review program for midwives working acrossthe continuum of midwifery care
(e) 20 additional hours per year of continuing professional development relating to the continuum of midwifery care (additional to completed 20, 40 hours in total)
(f) formal undertaking to complete within 18 months ofrecognition as an eligible midwife, or the successful completion of
(i) an accredited and approved program of study determined by the Board to develop midwives’knowledge and skills in prescribing, or
(ii) a program that is substantially equivalent to such an approved program of study, as determined by the Board
Reference:
