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 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.

AMA Vice President, Professor Geoffrey Dobb, said today that the Medical Board of Australia should not have increased doctor registration fees following the poor treatment received by thousands of doctors during the first year of operation of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

AHPRA is the overarching body for the 10 national health practitioner registration boards, including the Medical Board.

The Medical Board has increased registration fees for 2011/12 to $670, an increase of $20.

It has become increasingly common for health practitioners not holding a medical degree or professional doctorate qualifications, to adopt the title ‘Doctor’ (Dr). The AMA opposes the use of the title ‘Dr’  by health practitioners in a way that misleads people into believing they are consulting or receiving treatment from a medical practitioner.

The AMA submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee inquiry into AHPRA highlights that the administrative failure by AHPRA to properly plan for and coordinate the transition to national registration has had a detrimental effect on individual medical practitioners, and on services to patients.  In failing to ensure that every medical practitioner transitioned smoothly to national registration, AHPRA failed to act in the public interest.  Patient care was put at risk because medical practitioners could not work.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA welcomes the acknowledgement by Health Ministers that there are significant administrative problems with the new Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency (AHPRA) that must be urgently fixed.

Dr Pesce said the AHPRA problems have had a significant impact on doctors and their patients.

“Some doctors have had to stop working until their registration has been reinstated, and patients have been unable to claim Medicare rebates because their doctors were suddenly unregistered due to AHPRA processes,” Dr Pesce said.

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.

The AMA has made a submission to the Podiatry Board of Australia's consultation process on proposed revisions to their prescribing standards for podiatrists.  This submission, which is consistent with previous AMA submissions on this issue to the Podiatry Board, highlights the deficiencies in the Guidelines with respect to course content and accreditation, shared care arrangements and expansion of the national drugs list.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA welcomes the positive response from the Medical Board of Australia to the AMA’s formal request to waive late fees for doctors registering with the Board under the new national registration arrangements.

Dr Pesce said that, in a letter to the Board on 15 September, the AMA made strong representations about the level of fees for national registration, with particular concern about the high fees for late renewals.

Supporting the medical workforce

The topic of the Conference – ‘10 Years From Now’ – is very appropriate given the era of health reform in which we are all operating at the moment.

We do need to plan for the future.

This session is titled ‘Medical Practitioner Registration and Training – issues for CHA facilities in 2010 and beyond’.

An important part of the future of our health system is the medical workforce.