Midwives Act, 1944
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Medical assistance in case of emergency. |
46.—(1) Where a midwife attends at a childbirth in which any emergency specified in rules made under this Act occurs, she shall call in to her assistance in accordance with such rules a registered medical practitioner. | |
(2) Where a midwife calls in to her assistance under this section a registered medical practitioner she shall forthwith report the nature of the emergency and the name of the practitioner to the local supervising authority for the district in which the practitioner attended. | ||
(3) Where a registered medical practitioner has, in response to a call made by a midwife under this section, attended in any emergency, the practitioner may report the nature of the emergency to the local supervising authority for the district in which he attended and thereupon such local supervising authority shall pay to the practitioner the appropriate fee. | ||
(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of this section, where a registered medical practitioner who, in response to a call made by a midwife under this section, has attended in an emergency is a medical officer for a dispensary district and the patient is a person eligible for medical assistance under the Public Assistance Act, 1939 (No. 27 of 1939), and resides in the district of such medical officer, no fee shall be payable under the said sub-section. | ||
(5) If for the purposes of sub-section (4) of this section, any doubt, dispute, or question arises as to whether a person is or is not a person eligible for medical assistance under the Public Assistance Act, 1939 , such doubt, dispute, or question shall be decided by the relevant public assistance authority, and such decision shall be final. | ||
(6) Where a local supervising authority pays under this section a fee for the attendance of a registered medical practitioner, the husband or other person responsible for the patient shall, unless the patient is a person eligible for medical assistance under the Public Assistance Act, 1939 , pay the amount of the fee to the local supervising authority, and such amount shall, in default of payment, be recoverable as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction. | ||
(7) The Minister may by regulations specify the fees to be paid under this section to registered medical practitioners and may by such regulations specify conditions governing the payment of such fees. | ||
(8) Nothing in sub-section (1) of this section or any rules made for the purposes of that sub-section shall be construed as preventing the Minister from requiring a midwife of a dispensary district, when calling in to her assistance under this section a registered medical practitioner, to call in the medical officer of such district, if he is available. | ||
(9) In this section— | ||
the expression “dispensary district” means a dispensary district for the purposes of the Public Assistance Act, 1939 ; | ||
the expression “the appropriate fee” means such fee (if any) as is, in the particular case in question, appropriate in accordance with the regulations made under sub-section (7) of this section. |