Australian Medical Association

AMA Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Inquiry into the Factors Affecting the Supply of Health Services and Medical Professionals in Rural Areas

The AMA has made an extensive submission to the Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee Inquiry into the Factors Affecting the Supply of Health Services and Medical Professionals in Rural Areas, setting out viable strategies to improve access to health care for people living in rural and remote Australia.

AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that a broad practical plan that incorporates clever thinking and local solutions is needed to attract doctors to rural practice and keep them in local communities for the long term.

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.

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.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today paid tribute to his friend and colleague, Dr Paul Bauert, who has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).

Dr Bauert is the current President of the AMA Northern Territory, a member of the Federal AMA Executive, Chair of the Federal AMA’s Public Health and Youth Health Committee, co-Chair of the Federal AMA Rural Medical Committee, and a member of the AMA’s Taskforce on Indigenous Health.

Dr Bauert is Director of Paediatrics at Royal Darwin Hospital and has worked in Darwin and visited Aboriginal communities for more than 25 years providing specialised health care and advice and leadership.

Dr Pesce said that Dr Bauert has worked tirelessly to improve Indigenous health throughout his professional career and made it his personal mission to ensure that the AMA at the Territory and Federal level constantly champions the cause of improving the health of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders.

MJA media release - Young rural Australians with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) have limited access to adult diabetes health services and contact with specialist staff, and aren’t effectively transitioning from child to adult health services, according to an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The article finds that diabetes the management of young Australians, and uptake of routine monitoring and preventative services, is poor in several Australian regions.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the Coalition’s commitment to invest $85 million in health infrastructure in local communities is a small but good start in meeting growing demand for important services and equipment, especially for public hospitals.

Dr Pesce said that capital investment in health infrastructure, particularly in neglected areas of rural, regional and remote Australia, is sorely needed.

MJA media release - Evidence shows no difference in professional satisfaction between metropolitan and rural GPs, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Matthew McGrail from the Gippsland Medical School and the School of Rural Health at Monash University, VIC, and his co-authors conducted a study investigating whether the level of professional satisfaction of Australian general practitioners varied according to community size and location.

The authors used data from 3906 GPs who participated in the first wave of the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) study conducted between June and November 2008.

State Programs for Doctor Health

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today congratulated the Government and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists on a mutually satisfactory outcome from their negotiations over changes to the Medicare rebate for cataract surgery.

Dr Pesce said that today’s resolution was, above all, a win for patients and a great relief for the thousands of people around the country who had faced uncertainty over their sight-saving operations.

“The successful outcome over this issue confirms the AMA view that there must be expert clinical input at the beginning of the process of making changes to Medicare rebates, not after the event,” Dr Pesce said.

AMA's views on rural health care delivery to the Department of Health and Ageing.

The AMA highlights that the major shortfall in current rural health programs is the overall lack of funding.

The AMA also calls for the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification system that is used by the department to target many of its rural workforce programs to be retained and enhanced.