NASOG Advocacy

NASOG advocates for specialist obstetricians and gynaecologists in the policy, funding and public debate that shapes women’s healthcare in Australia.

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We start from a clear position: specialist-led care remains an essential part of safe, high-quality and sustainable women’s healthcare. Our advocacy is focused on three priorities:

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• Demonstrate the value of specialist-led care

NASOG advocates for better data, clearer evidence and stronger policy recognition of the outcomes, continuity and system value delivered by specialist-led care.

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• Build trust in the profession among policymakers

NASOG works to strengthen policymaker confidence in specialist O&G through transparent, solutions-focused engagement and evidence-based policy contribution.

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• Improve access and affordability for specialist women’s healthcare

NASOG pursues practical funding and policy solutions that reduce barriers to specialist care and help keep high-quality women’s healthcare accessible and sustainable.

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The Advocacy Environment

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Our work takes place in a policy environment increasingly focused on specialist affordability, public scrutiny of out-of-pocket costs and broader structural changes in how women’s healthcare is delivered.

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Those structural changes include growing task substitution and a shift towards models of women’s healthcare centred on speed, convenience and product access rather than comprehensive medical care, careful diagnosis and prevention.

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Recent legislative and policy debate has also intensified attention on specialist fee visibility and private health consumer transparency. However, public discussion often gives insufficient attention to the real costs of running a safe and sustainable private specialist practice.

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NASOG supports meaningful transparency, but transparency must be grounded in evidence and context. Fee visibility alone does not explain complexity, continuity of care, after-hours obligations, infrastructure costs, indemnity exposure or the funding distortions that sit underneath private specialist practice.

 

In obstetrics particularly, discussion about fees can become disconnected from the actual structure of care and from the broader policy settings that have made private maternity increasingly difficult to sustain. Transparency should build trust, not distort it. That requires better data, clearer explanation of models of care and a stronger policy understanding of the difference between headline price and full-system value.

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Who Are We Talking To?

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NASOG’s advocacy work is national in scope and involves direct engagement with federal policymakers, state representatives, private health stakeholders, medical associations, hospital operators and others involved in shaping the specialist practice environment for O&G.

Just as importantly, we engage with the profession itself so that our policy proposals are informed by real practice experience, not assumptions.

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We approach these discussions in a collaborative spirit, recognising that levels of understanding and perceptions of specialist O&G care vary across the policy and stakeholder landscape.

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A Profession-Facing and System-Facing Role

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NASOG’s advocacy serves both the profession and the health system.

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It is profession-facing in that it seeks to protect the viability, visibility and integrity of specialist obstetric and gynaecological practice.

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It is system-facing in that it argues for policy settings that support safe care, reduce avoidable pressure on the public system and maintain meaningful choice for women.

 

For NASOG members, our advocacy matters because it ensures the interests, realities and value of specialist O&G practice are being reflected in the decisions that will shape the future of women’s healthcare.