Australian Medical Association

The AMA Joint submission highlights the real risk that the new scheme will erode the medical board’s ability to protect patient safety, and addresses four major concerns with the proposed registration arrangements:

1. There is no recognition or guarantee of the continued role of medical colleges in determining specialist qualifications for, and conferring them on, medical practitioners;
2. The scope of practice for the other health professions will be able to be expanded without any obligation for one health profession board to consult with other boards, particularly the medical profession board;
3. The scheme seeks to introduce new onerous continuing competence/CPD requirements, which will effectively create a new scheme for the medical profession, and does not recognise the role of the colleges in continuing competence and professional development for the medical profession;
4. The medical board will be able to register a person who does not meet the requirements for registration in certain circumstances.

The AMA considers there is a critical need for device registries to be established in Australia, as highlighted by the PIP breast implant incident. Such registries should be funded by government.

The AMA strongly believes that strong support for health and medical research is necessary to ensure that the best and most efficient health care is available to all Australians. Australia has been falling behind other countries in its funding and strategic long-term commitments to health and medical research. This submission to the McKeon Review outlines how Australia can regain its position as a world leader in health and medical innovation.

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.

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.

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.

The AMA has reviewed the Government’s Draft Ten Year Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform (the Roadmap) and is pleased to see that some of the directions set out in the plan incorporate elements of the AMA Position Statement on Mental Health 2011, in particular those Roadmap actions related to reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing access to early intervention and support and improving accessibility of mental health and support services. The AMA has nevertheless critiqued the Government on funding cuts to the Better Access Program (as this action does not match the policy intent outlined in the Roadmap to improve provision of mental health and support services to those who need them) and for failing to adequately recognise the vital and increasing role that GPs play in caring for patients with a mental health issue and their families. The AMA comments also highlighted the importance of specifically targeted programs for special needs groups, and the need to develop measures to address systemic barriers to mental health services.

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.

The AMA submission to the National Prescribing Service (NPS) Prescribing Competencies Project highlights the need for greater emphasis on:

• adequate level of training to meet competency requirements to prescribe; 
• practitioners prescribing within their scope of practice;
• being competent in using knowledge and making judgments on when not to prescribe;
• referring a person to another health professional when that person’s clinical condition is outside scope of practice; 
• referring a person to a medical practitioner if they fail to improve within a specified period of time;
• keeping prescribing and dispensing separate; and   
• effectively communicating in English.

Federal Budget Submission 2012-13: Priorities in preventive health