Obstetric risk avoidance: Will anyone be offering obstetrics in private practice by the end of the decade?

Abstract

Obstetric claims inflation is increasing the cost of covering obstetric risk. This is leading to obstetric risk avoidance by those offering insurance and by practitioners who do not perform enough deliveries to cover the cost of obstetric risk indemnity. By the end of the decade indemnifying obstetric risk will probably be too expensive for doctors in private practice. Non-indemnified doctors will be unable or unwilling to do private deliveries; however, women will still fall pregnant and require delivery. These women will inevitably be forced to deliver in provincial facilities, shifting the workload and liability to the state.