President and CEO update May 2022
This is the final report from this double act. A new President, Dr Maria Boulton, and Vice President, Dr Nick Yim have been elected.
Maria’s experiences of growing up in war-torn El Salvador and returning to her home country as a medical student have helped shape her career as a GP and an advocate for the profession. Nick is a pharmacist turned GP who lives and works in Hervey Bay.
Both are committed to working for all members, regardless of where they live, which specialty they are in or what career stage they are at.
Dr Boulton will be writing these updates in coming months.
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be AMA Queensland President for the past two years.
North Queensland pharmacy trial
In May, we released the final report of our survey of doctors about the Queensland Government’s urinary tract infection (UTI) pharmacy trial.
More than 1,300 doctors responded, reporting at least 240 cases of patients needing medical treatment for complications after taking part in the trial allowing pharmacists to diagnose and sell prescriptions for UTIs.
The Government is now planning to expand the trial this month to allow pharmacists in North Queensland to diagnose and sell prescription medications for 23 serious conditions without any medical oversight, in breach of Commonwealth legislation.
The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) was engaged by Queensland Health to manage the UTI pilot’s implementation and evaluation. QUT has provided an evaluation report to Queensland Health, but the Government is yet to release it.
A leaked copy of the report, obtained by The Australian newspaper, revealed 270 cases of complications but a follow-up rate of only 35.7 per cent of the trial participants, with 3,000 women unable to be contacted.
We have asked QUT to consider whether a trial that provides no clear mechanism for patients or doctors to report adverse events, and where the data for the evaluation of a service comes from the pharmacist who delivered that service, meets their usual standards for ethical approvals.
We continue to call on the Queensland Government to release the QUT evaluation and more details about the North Queensland trial to allow appropriate scrutiny from the public and healthcare professionals before proceeding any further.
Read the survey report and media release.
Free flu jabs
The Queensland Government’s decision to become the first jurisdiction to make flu jabs free to everyone was welcome but came without consultation with GPs, leading to confusion and frustration for patients and practices.
AMA Queensland worked hard with Queensland Health to clarify which vaccines could be used, how patients and general practices would be reimbursed, and to get an appropriate level of payment, with regular member updates provided as information came to hand
We supported the initiative, which led to 30,000 people getting a influenza vaccination in the first week after the announcement with latest figures now reporting more than 331,000 people have come forward for a flu jab
We reiterated our frustration that yet again another major announcement was made through the media without any consultation with GPs beforehand to work out the details.
Nationally, GPs had done more than three million flu vaccines by the end of May. In the first week of May alone, Queensland recorded 1,000 confirmed cases of influenza – almost double the number of cases across Australia in 2021.
You can read our media release and a transcript of Dr Boulton on ABC Radio.
Federal election result
The nation has a new Prime Minister and Government, and a new Health Minister. With our federal colleagues, we will work to hold the new Labor Government to its promised $750 million to support implementation of the Primary Care Plan, plus $220 million in GP infrastructure grants.
Labor also committed to a $146 million investment to target regional, rural and remote communities with immediate health workforce needs, and has supported proposals to expand both the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program and the single employer model trial for GP registrars. These are practical policies that will help support the rural workforce.
We look forward to seeing more detail about Labor’s proposal for GP-led urgent care clinics – how they would be funded and staffed, and where they would be located.
Disappointingly, neither side of politics committed to our call for the federal government to increase public hospital funding from 45 to 50 per cent alongside state funding for our public hospitals. That extra 5 per cent from the Commonwealth would inject an extra $1.5 billion a year, enough to pay for the 1,500 extra beds we need.
As part of the AMA Clear the Hospital Logjam and Modernise Medicare campaigns, AMA Queensland held a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday 12 May for doctors and patients to share their experiences of the Queensland health system.
We invited a range of political candidates and representatives to hear stories and explain their party’s policies. Labor Senator Nita Green, Greens Senate candidate Penny Allman-Payne, Socialist Alliance Senate candidate Dr Kamala Emanuel and Independent candidate for Herbert, Dr Angela Egan (an AMA Queensland member) took part. The federal LNP was unable to supply a candidate.
The town hall was open to the public and the media. You can watch it here.
Ambulance ramping
Ambulance ramping has been a national issue since last year, and in May the AMA released a Ramping Report Card which showed that Queensland is consistently failing to meet its own targets for transferring patients from ambulances and into emergency departments (EDs).
Queensland has a target of getting 90 per cent of patients off an ambulance stretcher into ED within 30 minutes, but only managed 65.2 per cent of the time in the last financial year.
We are continuing to call on the Queensland Government to implement our Ramping Roundtable Action Plan, starting with 1,500 more hospital beds around the state.
We joined with our colleagues in the Queensland GP Alliance to refute attempts to shift the blame for emergency department overcrowding and ambulance ramping on to primary care after Deputy Premier Steven Miles said patients could not get appointments with GPs and that GPs are too expensive.
Minister Miles claimed to have been taken out of context and blamed the federal government for not investing in general practice. On that we can agree with him. But the Queensland Government needs to fix hospitals and not try to shift blame.
Read an ABC Online story about the strain influenza and COVID have put on our hospitals, and the joint media release from the Queensland GP Alliance in response to Minister Miles’ comments.
Foundation Charity event
The AMA Queensland Foundation Charity Event in May raised a total of $11,893 for Youngcare to support their At Home Care and Home Support Grants. It's still not too late to donate as the Foundation is committed to raising $25,000 this financial year. Visit here for more details
Guests at the dinner heard from inspiring speakers, including Juiced TV founder and CEO Pip Forbes, Youngcare board director Jamie Shine, Foundation Medical Student Scholarship recipient Isaac O’Dempsey, Foundation Chair Dr Dilip Dhupelia and AMA Queensland Board and Council chair Dr Eleanor Chew.
Head to our Facebook page to see the photo gallery from the night.