Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President, and Dr Bill Glasson, AMA President Queensland, Parliament House, Canberra

We're here today to express deep concern about the lack of apparent progress on the medical indemnity issue. We are faced with a lot of confusion, a lot of fear by doctors in the community who are providing services but are increasingly finding it difficult to continue to work to provide those services to their patients because of the insecurity over medical indemnity.

We understand that with - the provisional liquidator has put out a letter last week saying that while they would be paying for on-going legal costs they would not be paying for the settlement of claims.

We believe that a Letter of Comfort has been sent from the Government to the UMP provisional liquidator, which will be heard in court, today. Unless we see details of that, and unless there is a statement that will provide security for doctors to continue to provide essential services to their patients, within the next 24 hours, then I don't think there is anything the AMA or anyone else can do to keep doctors working all around Australia.

Now, we have a serious situation on our hands. We are working as closely as possible with the Government, but it is time that the doctors working out there got some answers.

QUESTION: Dr Phelps, are you being alarmist? 24 hours to go?

PHELPS: We're not being alarmist. The deadline for the States to come up with comprehensive tort law reform proposals is the 29th May. We have heard very little from the State Governments about that proposal.

We have heard very little about the progress on the care and rehabilitation scheme for the severely disabled. We have heard very little about what doctors can feel confident about, which is that they can continue to work and feel secure that they will not lose everything that they ever worked for.

Now, this is not alarmist. And the President of AMA Queensland, Bill Glasson, wants to make some comments also about that workforce issue.

GLASSON: Thanks very much, Kerryn. I just want to make it very clear that Queensland has 8,000 doctors involved in the UMP crisis. But essentially, there's been a clear message from all Queensland doctors that if a solution is not reached - we've actually given them a slightly longer deadline, that by the end of this month. Anyway a signal has to come out within the next 24 hours that the Government is working on this agenda.

And, essentially, what we're asking for is a clear signal from government that essentially medical practice in this country is long-term sustainable. Otherwise the doctors in Queensland have indicated that they will be basically closing their doors as of 2nd June and, essentially, just either retiring, going interstate or doing something else.

But essentially the clear message out there is they've had enough. They will not continue unless those reforms are put in place. And essentially what we're asking here is really a sustainable medical solution for the public of Australia.

And essentially what we see is the public of Australia being hurt by this, and that the standards of medicine in this country and the access to medicine in this country is going to be impacted upon such that the average person in Australia will in fact be looking down the end of a gun barrel, so to speak, as far as the quality medical service that we used to access in this country.

Now, next week we're meeting up with a whole range of groups, including neurosurgeons, general practice groups, and they too have already signalled to me that they will get behind this move because they want to see the legislative reform in place to guarantee the long-term sustainability of medical practice in this country.

QUESTION: Doctor Phelps, can you explain that Letter of Comfort you mentioned?

PHELPS: The provisional liquidator for UMP sent a letter out to all UMP members last Friday, which said that while they would continue to pay for the ongoing legal costs of doctors who had claims against them, that if they had a settlement against them that this time that the doctor would be personally liable. And that they would have to send, if you like, a bill to UMP and UMP would decide, in due course, if they would cover that.

Now, just last week there was a settlement for $5 million. Now, no individual doctor can possibly afford to come up with a $5 million settlement and then wait to see the outcome of this process with UMP.

The Government has made a guarantee. It is not, at this stage, to the satisfaction of the UMP provisional liquidator. The Letter of Comfort is designed to enable the UMP liquidator to be able to settle those claims.

Now, doctors are not being told that this is the case. And unless we get a clear signal from government within the next 24 hours, nobody will be able to stop doctors from making the decision to stop work until they feel comfortable and secure that they can continue without risk of losing all of their assets.

QUESTION: So your understanding is a Letter of Comfort has gone to UMP but you don't know the details of it?

PHELPS: The Letter of Comfort has gone to UMP from the Government. The liquidator has indicated that unless the court approves that Letter of Comfort, then the status quo exists.

So what we need is a very clear signal from government of exactly what is going to happen so that doctors can have the security to keep working.

Now, this is not an alarmist statement, because we already have doctors in the Moree area who have stopped work until they have a clear signal from government about what is happening, what's going on.

QUESTION: How would you describe the Government's handling of this?

PHELPS: This is a very complex issue and it has taken the Government quite a long time to come up to speed with the seriousness of the issue. We have been putting this situation to government for the better part of the last four or five years, and certainly intensively so in the last 12 months.

State governments are also finally coming to the realisation that they have very much a role to play, not only in the Statute of Limitations issue, but in broader tort law reform to get some commonsense into this whole issue. At the moment, it has gone out of control and we are standing on the brink of chaos.

Now, unless we get clear signals from the State governments and from the Federal Government, then nobody is going to be able to avert that crisis.

GLASSON: The clear message, ladies and gentlemen, to the public of Australia, is that we've had enough. The medical profession's had enough, the public of Australia have had enough in relation to this whole liability issue. It extends beyond medicine. It extends into every facet of your life. We're talking about swimming in our beaches, we're talking about playing in our parks, we're talking about living in a society that we've taken for granted for the last decade or so.

So the profession at large is talking more broader than just medical services here, we're talking about services across the whole aspect of our life. And so we're basically saying to government we've had enough. For goodness sake, at both the State and at Federal level, address this now and address this once and for all otherwise we'll revisit this over and over again over the next decade or so and we're not willing to do that.

And so the profession has finally made a stand. They have been the sitting ducks. They've been shot at over and over again in the last decade and we're not willing to be shot at any more.

QUESTION: Okay, thanks.

PHELPS: Thank you everyone.

Ends