AMA: don’t abandon families Mr Rudd

The AMA has again urged the Federal Government to keep its promise to maintain the Medicare Safety Net. There has been renewed media speculation that the Government could use the budget to curtail safety net support for women having babies and couples accessing IVF treatment.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, has said that reducing support for families with high medical costs is not an appropriate response to the Government’s budget problems.

Dr Capolingua said the Medicare Safety Net was not only important to people having children.

“Medicare rebates have not kept pace with rising costs of providing medical care in recent years. People with serious illnesses such as cancer need the safety net to help ensure they can access the medical treatment they need when they need it,” she said. Read more

AMA:  medical care just as important as disaster planning

Ensuring aged care residents have access to medical care is just as important as making sure nursing homes are equipped to deal with fires or other emergencies. Under new rules, all nursing homes applying for Federal Government-funded aged care places will be required to demonstrate that they are equipped to deal with disaster threats such as bushfires and floods.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said aged care facilities must also be required to ensure residents have ongoing access to medical care.  Read more

Diabetes pilot program: Diabetes Medication Assistance Service

The Diabetes Medication Assistance Service is a pilot program run by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia with funding from the Department of Health and Ageing under the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement. The purpose of the program is to offer people with type 2 diabetes assistance with managing their condition. The program is designed to be complementary to existing services. More than 800 pharmacies nationally are involved in stage 2 of the pilot program.

To be eligible for the program, patients must have established type 2 diabetes and have a HAb1c reading of 7 or greater confirmed by test results by their GP. Before a patient can participate in the program the pharmacist is required, with the consent of the patient, to contact the patient’s GP to obtain this information. Upon completion of the program a participant's GP can be provided with a GP summary report from the participating pharmacy.

If your practice has experienced any problems with patients participating in this program the Department of Health and Ageing can be contacted at ppsac@health.gov.au

GP safety

In a welcome move, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has launched a training kit to help GPs prevent and manage unsafe situations in their surgeries – which follows on from a similar 2008 AMA initiative. The kit is available from the Colleges’ website.

The AMA released its own kit designed to make medical practices safer for GPs, their staff and patients in June 2008. Members can obtain the kit by calling (02) 6270 5481.