Working Conditions for Doctors

Submission: NHMRC's Draft Australian Dietary Guidelines 2011

cmoylan — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:06:58 +1000

Food provides our bodies with the energy, protein, essential fats, vitamins and minerals to live, grow and function properly. Concerning trends have been observed in the eating habits of many Australians and the implications are serious. The National Health and Medical Research Council's (NHMRC) Draft Australian Dietary Guidelines 2011 provides population level guidance on healthy eating patterns and related guidance for health professionals.

The AMA's Submission highlights that a range of measures is needed to improve nutritional literacy, including education on energy needs and portion sizes, improved food labelling, and affordable access to healthy food options. The AMA Submission also identifies a need for practical resources aimed at medical practitioners including access to a database of locally available supports such dieticians, healthy cooking classes and walking groups.

Submission: Elective surgery urgency categories - national definitions

mzygmunt — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:07:54 +1000

The AMA submission to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons highlights that: urgency categories should facilitate patients being prioritised for surgery fairly and equitably; category definitions should take account of all the factors relevant to a patient's requirement for surgery; the primary driver for surgeons to categorise elective surgery will always be clinical urgency; and elective surgery waiting time should be counted from the time the patient is referred by a general practitioner to a surgeon for assessment until the time surgery is performed.

Submission: Funding for doctors' health advisory services

nbrowne — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:14:53 +1000

The AMA has responded to the Medical Board of Australia's (MBA) consultation paper on the role of the Board in funding external doctors' health programs. In preparing its response, the AMA relied on its 2011 Position Statement on the Health and Wellbeing of Doctors and Medical Students as well a survey of doctors conducted by the AMA that attracted 2057 responses.

Regional/Rural Workforce Initiatives - 2012

nbrowne — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:55:59 +1000

The AMA has identified medical workforce shortage as a major health issue. The Regional/Rural Workforce Initiatives - 2012 Position Statement looks at all the issues affecting workforce shortages in regional and rural Australia and outlines initiatives and measures which would offer solutions to the current workforce shortage.

Submission: Linked Dual-Trained Physician Care in Rural Communities

vbonney — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:41:35 +1100

The AMA has provided a submission to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) in response to their discussion paper Linked Dual-Trained Physician Care in Rural Communities. The AMA supports efforts to improve patient access to to medical care in regional and rural Australia and the RACP model has merit for further development. It needs more detail and refinement to ensure such a model is attractive for potential trainees, effective in delivering care and sustainable in the long term for rural communities.

Submission: Pricing Framework for Public Hospital Services

mzygmunt — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:19:24 +1100

The AMA's submission to the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority on a pricing framework for public hospital services calls for hospital services to be funded on the basis of an 'effective' rather than an 'efficient' price. An effective price is one that provides sustainable and equitable access to high quality hospital services. The submission details the AMA's support for appropriate funding of post-hospital care; investment in teaching, training and research; and small and medium sized hospitals.

Submission: Inquiry into the Factors Affecting the Supply of Health Services and Medical Professionals in Rural Areas

vbonney — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:36:44 +1100

The AMA has identified the medical workforce shortage as a major health issue with the overall distribution of doctors being skewed heavily towards major cities such that regional, rural and remote areas shoulder a disproportionate workforce shortage burden. There is a strong preference amongst much of the current medical workforce to live and work in major cities. So much so that attracting young professionals to rural locations is extremely difficult. The AMA believes the factors affecting the supply of medical workforce in rural areas should be viewed in the context of generalism; remuneration and incentives; hospital infrastructure; compensation and family support; costs of establishing a practice and access to community; high on-call demands and the need for rosters and locum services;and recruitment of international medical graduates (IMG) doctors.The submission makes a series of recommendations addressing these issues as well as the effect of the introduction of Medicare Locals, anomalies with the ASGC scheme and the need to extend MBS telehealth items.

Medical Expenses Tax Deduction

emijoc — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:34:07 +1000

Patients may be eligible to claim a tax offset of 20% of their total out-of-pocket medical expenses provided that the total out-of-pocket costs reaches the threshold of more than $2,060 for 2011-12 financial year.

Alcohol Taxation Summit Communique

smorrison — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:45:00 +1100

In September 2011, the AMA hosted a summit of public health and police stakeholders to consider advice to the Australian Government on reform of alcohol taxation and pricing. A Communique was issued which outlined a consensus view on options for reform.

Out-of-Hours Primary Medical Care - 2004. Revised 2011

nbrowne — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:58:07 +1100

The provision of out-of-hours care is a key part of general practice. The AMA Out-of-Hours Primary Medical Care 2011 position statement has been developed to guide the design of these services, outlining the essential feature of a successful model of out-of-hours primary medical care.

Submission: Rural and Remote Health Workforce Innovation and Reform Strategy

brobinson — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:24:44 +1100

This submission responds to the HWA draft background paper - Rural and Remote Health Workforce Innovation and Reform Strategy released in July 2011 as part of the consultation process.

The AMA believes it is important that the Government gets it right to ensure that the health workforce in rural and remote areas is sustainable and that people in rural communities can access affordable, appropriate health care services when needed.

Submission: Productivity Commission on the impacts of the implementation of national registration and accreditation for the health workforce

mzygmunt — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:05:27 +1100

The AMA submission to the Productivity Commission outlined how the promised administrative efficiencies and economies of scale of the national scheme have not been realised for the medical profession. The scheme:

has increased compliance costs for the medical profession;
has introduced administrative red tape;
lacks clarity on the handling of notifications;
has introduced mandatory reporting requirements that must be thoroughly evaluated before its impact is properly understood; and
requires greater transparency and accountability of AHPRA administration for each registered health profession.

AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2011

vbonney — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:28:45 +1100

The AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2011 has found that there has been little improvement in public hospital capacity and performance across Australia in 2009-10, despite extra Commonwealth funding.

It has been very much business as usual as public hospitals struggle to meet demand.

Submission: Proposed Registration Standard – Granting registration as a medical practitioner on completion of intern training

nbrowne — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:03:44 +1000

The AMA has made a submission to the Medical Board of Australia on its Proposed Registration Standard – Granting registration as a medical practitioner on completion of intern training. The Board's proposed standard includes the option for health services to provide interns with exposure to emergency medicine (EM) in a general practice context. Of utmost concern to the AMA is the absence of clear criteria about what would constitute appropriate exposure to EM under this type of arrangement. As a result, the AMA has offered to be part of the team that will prepare guidelines to better define the Board’s requirements. In the mean time, the AMA maintains that all interns should have access to a term in an Emergency Department.

Draft rulings to impact on GST status of some medical services

nbrowne — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:12:14 +1000

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently released draft addenda to GST Rulings 2006-9 and 2006-10 for comment. These draft addenda will effect the GST status of some medical services and the AMA is seeking legislative changes to ensure that medical practitioners do not face additional compliance costs.

Prevocational Medical Education and Training - 2011

nbrowne — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:51:28 +1000

This statement outlines the AMA’s position on the scope and structure of prevocational medical education, which encompasses the period between graduation and the commencement of vocational training. In the case of most trainees, it includes postgraduate year 1 (PGY1), also known as internship, and postgraduate year 2 (PGY2). Doctors at this stage of their training are collectively referred to as junior medical officers (JMOs). The statement provides a position on contemporary as well as emerging issues related to prevocational medical education and training, taking into account concerns raised by junior doctors regarding quality, streaming, competencies and vocational pathways.

Submission: National Performance and Accountability Framework

mzygmunt — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:43:13 +1000

The AMA submission to the Department of Health and Ageing on the draft Performance and Accountability Framework which will be used by the National Health Performance Authority urges the Government to undertake a proper consultation process on the performance indicators proposed in the Framework beyond the State and Territory governments.

COAG National Health Reform Agreement, 2 August 2011

smorrison — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:54:36 +1000

On 2 August 2011, the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments finalised the National Health Reform Agreement. A summary of the Agreement's key points can be found here.

Resources on doctors' health for Australian doctors

vbonney — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:52:49 +1000

‘Healthy doctors, healthy patients’ is a well-known maxim of the medical profession. Doctors need to be well to provide high-quality health care to their patients and the community, and to experience medicine as a rewarding and satisfying career. Listed here are useful resources and information on doctors’ health and wellbeing.

A Guide to Working Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors

amclennan — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:30:37 +1000

Interested in working abroad as a junior doctor? "A Guide to Working Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors" (the Guide) has been developed by the AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training (AMACDT) and Australian Medical Students' Association (AMSA) to meet a strong demand from medical students and junior doctors for evidence based and practical information on studying and training overseas.

Written by eight junior doctors in consultation with a range of Australian experts, the 90 page Guide is the gold standard for any medical student or junior doctor seeking to organise safe and rewarding placements and rotations abroad.

The Guide is available as an electronic supplement to the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA).

Submission: Impact of emergency department targets on junior doctors

mzygmunt — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:49:01 +1000

The AMA has made an additional submission to the Department of Health and Ageing to raise concerns identified by AMA member junior doctors. This submission:

emphasises the need to ensure that time-based targets do not impact on the ability of public hospitals to provide quality clinical education and training;
calls for ongoing resources to support the ability of emergency departments, the hospital and community providers to fulfil education and training obligations; and
recommends that the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of targets also includes the impact on education, training and junior doctor experiences.

This submission supplements the submission lodged by the AMA on 25 May 2011.

Launch of 'A Guide to Working Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors'

amclennan — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:13:03 +1000

Interested in working abroad as a junior doctor? The AMA and AMSA will launch ‘A Guide to Working to Abroad for Australian Medical Students and Junior Doctors’ at an evening seminar at AMA Victoria on Tuesday 21 June 2011.

Details are as follows:

Tuesday 21 June
1830 (refreshments) for 1900
AMA Victoria House, 293 Royal Pde, Parkville
RSVP to amclennan@ama.com.au or 02 6270 5424

2011 National Minimum Terms and Conditions for Basic and Advanced GP Terms

tgoodacre — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:31:08 +1100

As part of a service to all of our members the AMA has mediated an agreement between GP Registrars and GP Supervisors that sets out minimum terms and conditions for GP Registrars. This agreement is negotiated every two years by the National GP Supervisors Association (NGPSA) and GP Registrars Australia (GPRA), with the AMA's assistance.

The 2011 agreement applies from the start of the 2011 training year.

AMA submission to the Medical Board of Australia on draft guidelines for medical practitioners and medical students infected with blood-borne viruses

mzygmunt — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:58:39 +1000

The AMA submission highlights that the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare 2010 already govern the management of health care practitioners who have blood-borne viruses and makes the point that there is no need to de-register a medical practitioner because they have a blood-borne virus. The AMA has asked the Board to clarify its role in regulating the scope of practice of medical practitioners who are infected with a blood-borne virus in isolation from the way this issue is managed by medical practitioners and the health care organisations in which they practice. The AMA has suggested the Board undertake a second round of consultation once it has clarified what action would constitute a breach of guidelines and that action the Board might take in such cases.

AMA submission on Elective Surgery and Emergency Department Targets

mzygmunt — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:23:09 +1000

The AMA has made a submission to the Department of Health and Ageing, on the implementation of elective surgery and emergency department targets, which strongly advocates for an evidence-based approach to implementation. The AMA supports measures to improve the timeliness and quality of patient care in public hospitals but cautions against imposing arbitrary time-based targets that may carry more risks than potential benefits if they are not slowly, carefully and cautiously implemented.

Pathology - 2011

mzygmunt — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:05:45 +1000

Pathology services in Australia are amongst the highest quality and the most accessible in the world. However, Government funding cuts to pathology services have had an impact on the quality, accessibility, affordability and safety of pathology services. Government funding changes can also have a significant impact on the sustainability of the pathology sector including the ability to support ongoing training, research and development.

Health and wellbeing of doctors and medical students - 2011

vbonney — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:18:22 +1000

The Health and Wellbeing of Doctors and Medical Students – 2011 replaces the Health and Wellbeing of Medical Students and Practitioners – 2006.

The health and welfare of doctors continues to be a priority for the AMA. Junior doctors continue to experience distress in their workplace. This position statement provides a basis for future AMA lobbying and addresses a number of current and topical issues faced by doctors in training on a daily basis.

It includes details on support mechanisms that should be put in place by training providers to address issues related to doctors’ health. The revision of the document also represented an opportunity to include recent developments in doctors’ health such as mandatory reporting.

Submission: Inquiry into Registration Processes and Support for Overseas Trained Doctors

smorrison — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:05:56 +1100

In its submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing Inquiry into registration processes and support for Overseas Trained Doctors, the AMA calls for removal of the 10 year International Medical Graduates (IMG) moratorium and greater support for IMGs trying to achieve specialist registration through access to other GP training, courses.

AMA submission to the 2010 review of the Medicare provider number legislation

smorrison — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:38:01 +1100

The AMA has made a submission to the review of the Medicare provider number legislation. We have called for a number of measures including medical training initiatives; the introduction of a single Medicare provider number for all practice locations; and the grandfathering of pre-1996 non-vocationally registered general practitioners who were accessing GP Medicare rebates prior to 1 November 1996 and have predominantly been in general practice for a minimum of five years since that date.

AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2010

kwaterford — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:17:44 +1100

The AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2010 is an analysis of the most recent publicly available national data on public hospital performance plus more recent feedback from doctors working in public hospitals in all States and Territories.

There has been little improvement in public hospital capacity and performance despite significant extra Commonwealth funding as part of the National Healthcare Agreement and specific funding for an elective surgery ‘blitz’.