Doctors may withdraw from abortion clinic

Press, 23 November 1988, Page 57

Doctors may withdraw from abortion clinic

PA Wellington Three operating doctors at Wellington’s abortion clinic may withdraw their services because they believe the pressure of waiting lists could result in medical negligence, the “Evening Post” reports.

Parkview Clinic doctors — Doctors Margaret Sparrow, Carol Shand and Winifred Kennedy — have written to the Wellington Hospital Board’s acting chief "... medical officer, Helen Bichan, expressing “deep concern at the deterioration of (abortion) services” at the clinic.

The “Evening Post” has obtained a copy of the letter, which says: “Our most grave concern relates to the length of the waiting list at Parkview, which for much of ihe last few months hast been

three weeks. “Unless urgent action is taken by the board to ensure this is reduced and maintained at less than two weeks, we must reconsider our position as operating surgeons.

“We come to this position only after considerable soul-searching and with the health of the women on whom we operate being our priority. “Our main reason for this is that we believe it could amount to medical negligence to be operating on women at 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy who have presented at seven to nine weeks.”

The "Post” reported recently that the board’s moratorium on replacing social workers had resulted in women having to wait more than three weeks for an appointment at the clinic.

Wellington Hospital’s medical services director, Dick Laurenson, said in an interview last week that rearrangement of staff at the clinic, with nurses doing counselling and support work, had reduced waiting time to less than three weeks. The doctors say. long waiting lists leave no time for women (often very young) who learn late because of fear or diagnostic difficulties that they are pregnant. They are also concerned that the complication rate after abortion doubles in every week after the seventh week of pregnancy. They say they must, ensure they meet their responsibilities under the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act to complete assessments um|er the act within a two-week period.