AMA launches national survey to target red tape in general practice

The AMA has launched a survey to allow GPs across Australia to have their say on how red tape affects their practices and the time they can spend with patients.

AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that recent measures such as giving GPs online access to government forms have reduced the time doctors have to spend completing government paperwork.

Dr Hambleton said that, despite these measures, red tape continues to be an administrative burden on family doctors and medical practices.

“Research shows that family doctors are required to spend up to nine hours a week on Government red tape,” Dr Hambleton said.

“Filling in paperwork, meeting compliance requirements for government funding, and jumping through hoops to provide scripts for patients all add up to hours of work.

“For every hour that a family doctor is tied up doing the paperwork, about four patients miss out on seeing their family doctor.

“This is an unacceptable waste of time when it could be better spent caring for patients.

“The AMA has worked hard to get some basic improvements for GPs and their patients, such as online government forms and the inclusion of additional medicines to the PBS streamlined authority prescription process.

“But the benefits of these measures are overshadowed by new Government health initiatives that create an extra load of red tape for family doctors.

“The AMA is concerned about red tape in general practice and has developed a survey that is open to all GPs in Australia to tell us how much of a problem red tape is for them.

“The results of the survey will help the AMA tell governments how to reduce red tape in general practice.

“The AMA knows this is an important part of health reform and improving Australia’s primary health care system, and we are committed to getting red tape reduced for family doctors,” Dr Hambleton said.

GPs can complete the survey on the AMA website at http://ama.com.au/redtape-survey

22 July 2011

CONTACT:         John Flannery                     02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761

                       Geraldine Kurukchi               02 6270 5467 / 0427 209 753

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