Australian Medical Association

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Agreement 2010 outlines the agreement reached by all jurisdictions, except Western Australia, to establish a National Health and Hospitals Network (NHHN). The NHHN Agreement incorporates structural reforms as well as additional investments in hospital, primary and aged care services, and preventive care in mental health and diabetes health care.

Further initiatives announced in the Commonwealth Government’s Budget on 12 May 2010 include support for practice nurses, improved primary care infrastructure and the roll-out of electronic health records, bringing the total new health investment over the next five years to $7.3 billion.

Doctors will have an opportunity to have their say on how to fix the health system at two meetings to be hosted by the AMA (NSW) in Sydney next week.

The Federal Government is considering the reports of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, the Preventative Health Taskforce, and the Draft Primary Health Care Strategy, ahead of developing its health policies for the next election.

The AMA wants to brief doctors on the recommendations in the various reports and hear back from the doctors how they think the system can be improved

AMA Federal Vice President, Dr Steve Hambleton, and AMA (NSW) President, Dr Brian Morton, will discuss primary care reform at a forum for doctors at the Burwood Function Centre, 7-9 Burleigh Street Burwood, from 7.00pm on Tuesday 22 September.

AMA Federal President, Dr Andrew Pesce, and Dr Morton will run a forum on broader health reform at 6.30pm on Thursday 24 September at the John Loewenthal Auditorium at Westmead Hospital, cnr Hawkesbury and Darcy Roads, Westmead.

The AMA has made a submission to the Department of Health and Ageing in response to the report released by DoHA on the outcomes of the Point of Care Testing (PoCT) trial in general practice.

The AMA's response to Towards a National Primary Health Care Strategy - A Discussion Paper from the Australian Government.

Collation of AMA documents relating to primary health care.