Obstetric interventions among private and public patients

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7254.125

BMJ 2000;321:125-126 ( 15 July )

Editorials

Obstetric interventions among private and public patients

High rates of operative vaginal interventions in private patients need analysis

Papers p 137

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Pregnant women in Australia who give birth in private hospitals have higher rates of operative delivery (caesarean sections,forceps procedures, and vacuum extractions) than those who usepublic hospitals. Do they need to have more caesarean sections?In this edition of the BMJ, Roberts and colleagues (p 137) examinethe risk profiles of these two populations among women havingbabies in New South Wales, Australia.¹ They found that similarrates of women were classified as low risk (48% in private hospitalsand 49% in public). Within these low risk groups, private patientswere more likely to be 30-34 years old, but the proportion ofwomen classed as being at low risk was the same in each group.The authors, therefore, reasonably argue that this counters thecommonly held view that the reason for higher rates of caesareansections in private patients in Australia is because women athigher risk . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Rates for obstetric intervention among private and public patients in Australia: population based descriptive study: Christine L Roberts, Sally Tracy, and Brian Peat
BMJ 2000 321: 137-141. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Papapetros, I., Shorten, A. (2001). Obstetric intervention among private and public patients in Australia. BMJ 322: 430-430 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Money,private sector and corrupt Obstetricians: Jayantha Ilangaratne
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2000 [Full text]
Bumblebees do fly: Malcolm John Dickson
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2000 [Full text]