Australian Medical Association

This Position Statement examines the role of general practice in the delivery of primary care services in Australia.

MJA Media Release - Homeless people with mental illness lack access to primary care and seldom visit a GP at all, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Qun Mai and her co-authors from The University of Western Australia conducted a retrospective cohort study of 204,727 users and 294,076 matched non-users of mental health services in WA from 1 January 1990 to 30 June 2006.

They found that users of mental health services visited GPs significantly more often than non-users, with an overall adjusted rate ratio (ARR) of visits to GPs in this group of 1.622.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said that the Primary Health Care Organisations (PHCOs) announced today by the Government will need to be closely monitored and will require GP leadership if they are to deliver better health outcomes for communities.

Dr Pesce said the AMA is on the record as being opposed to the PHCO concept but, recognising that the Government was pursuing a PHCO policy, the AMA sought input to help determine their arrangements and ensure the key primary care role of GPs was preserved and supported.

“The AMA has consistently opposed any arrangement that would involve managed care of patients outside of the care provided by their normal doctor, and we have always opposed any interference in the doctor-patient relationship,” Dr Pesce said.

“Following representations from the AMA, the Government has made it clear that this is not how PHCOs would operate.

“Further, the Prime Minister has agreed with the AMA that PHCOs must complement the work of a patient's general practitioner."

The AMA supports high quality primary health care services that are convenient for patients and enhance patient access.

Incorporating pharmacy services into general practice would improve patient care, and medication management in particular, by allowing GPs to lead a team of co-located health professionals, including pharmacists, in providing collaborative health care to local patients.

A General Practice Pharmacy could be established within or next to an existing general practice and there should be the option for doctor owned pharmacies as an integral part of providing patients with convenient access to primary care services. Pharmacists would still retain the professional and legal responsibility for dispensing medicines, independent of the GP.

To enable these services to be established, the current restrictions on pharmacy location and ownership need to be lifted.

The AMA Ethics and Medico Legal Committee is developing guidelines for members on managing potential conflicts of interest that may arise from pharmacy ownership by the medical profession.

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.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today called for the National Primary Health Care Strategy to strengthen the role of general practitioners to ensure that Australians can have access to better primary care services.

Dr Pesce warned that any moves to water down the key leadership role of general practitioners would be a backward step.

“The Draft Strategy, released today, reinforces that Australia has a good health system, built on a solid general practitioner foundation, that is delivering good outcomes for most patients,” Dr Pesce said.

“So, in planning for the nation's future health care needs, we must build on what works - and that means keeping GPs at the centre of primary care,” Dr Pesce said.

AMA VICE PRESIDENT, DR STEVE HAMBLETON, Speech to Catholic Health Australia National Conference, Hobart, Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Improving The Bond Between Primary, Acute and Sub Acute Care 

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.

AMA Position Statement: Referrals within the Profession - 2007