Extreme caution needed on scope of practice

The AMA is working through the Scope of Practice Review Issues Paper 2 that was released earlier this week.

We remain very concerned about where the review is heading ― and have urged the government to be cautious about decisions that will further fragment the healthcare system and risk patient safety.

In our recent submission to the review’s Issues Paper 1 we warned that expanding scope of practice outside of collaborative arrangements is a slippery slope. These concerns were detailed in an AusDoc article on Tuesday this week.

AMA Vice President Dr Danielle McMullen told GPNN the last thing the health system needs are band aid solutions that will result in worse health outcomes for Australians.

“We made this very clear in our submission. We won’t support “shortcuts” to remove so-called education and training “barriers” to tackle GP shortages because of the risk of decreased safety and worse patient outcomes,” Dr McMullen said.

“What we don’t want to see is more health professions trying to carve out independent roles, which inevitably results in more fragmented care, waste and higher long term health system costs. We need to build on the strengths of our health care system, recognising the skills that different health care professions bring to the care of a patient.”

Read the AMA’s last submission to the scope of practice review