Achi news desk-
Ontario midwives can now prescribe more drugs and administer routine vaccinations, which the provincial government says will reduce the need for additional medical appointments for patients.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the wider coverage for midwives, saying it will connect more people with convenient care and reduce the need for referrals to other professionals.
Midwives can now give routine vaccinations including flu shots, COVID-19 vaccines, and the Tdap shot, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough, and has been recommended in the third trimester of pregnancy for around five years.
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Midwives will also be able to prescribe more medicines than they could previously for nausea and miscarriage management, as well as birth control for postnatal patients, and treatment for labor pain management in hospital.
The Ministry of Health says it continues to work with the Ontario College of Midwives and the Ontario Association of Midwives to explore ways that midwives’ scope of practice can be “optimized.”
The college and the society welcomed the news, but have previously said it would be more useful for patients and midwives to be allowed to order and prescribe the full range of tests and medicines used in pregnancy care, because due to developments in medicine and the list may be out of date almost as soon as it is published.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
