President's email update - Friday 6 August

The health policy bidding war is finally underway in this election campaign.

The Coalition yesterday released its health platform for the election and it is clear that they have heard and responded to the AMA’s advice on decisions that will deliver real results at the coalface of health.

We have Coalition commitments for 2800 hospital beds and more support and capacity for GPs to meet the increasing demand for medical care in the community.

We also have commitment on clinician involvement in hospital governance arrangements through community boards.

I have more to say about the Coalition health policy in my President’s blog on the AMA website.  Click here to let us know what you think.

Dr Andrew Pesce
AMA President

This week's Presidents Blog

The Coalition has announced its health policy and we can now begin to examine the action that both sides are taking to move the health agenda forward over the next term of Government.

The AMA recognises that there are many aspects of the Coalition’s plan that show it has listened to the concerns of the AMA and the medical profession and has responded in ways that we have to be happy about.

The commitment to enhance the support for general practitioners to look after their patients is a good one.  There's extra funding available for doctors to look after their patients both in terms of improving the rebates that patients get for their services, and also spending on infrastructure to help GPs expand their practices so they can put in more rooms and see more patients.

Access to after-hours care is going to be improved with better rebates for GPs and incentives to provide after-hours care.

The AMA welcomes the commitment to extra hospital beds, although it's very important that the Coalition, if it comes to Government, is very proactive in making those beds appear and doesn’t just fund ones that the States might decide to open.

We welcome the commitment to community boards to help manage local hospitals.  We believe that's a good step forward to make sure that more decisions are made locally, while allowing Governments to fund the hospitals as necessary.

On the downside, the proposed funding arrangements do not end the blame game.

The AMA has called for a single funder to end the blame game.  Both sides must commit to a single funder.

One glaring omission is still no message on e-health.  It's very, very important that we have a bipartisan approach to this – a commitment from both sides to deliver an e-health system, and get it up and running within the next term of Government.

We still have two weeks of campaigning to go.  We are hoping there will be more to come on health policy.  What do you think?

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