AMA President, Mr Bill Glasson, Discusses Medical Idemnity With Sporting Teams Travelling Overseas

 GLASSON:              Yes, we have a situation at the moment where essentially doctors who travel with overseas sporting teams are unable to attain medical indemnity cover.  Now, if that situation persists, no doctor will be able to travel with any sporting team, or any team, that is, to the rest of the world.

                Now, that situation's obviously not tenable, and I have had preliminary discussions with the Minister last week, very briefly, and also with the Department, and essentially that issue cannot continue, otherwise not only do we jeopardise our Olympic team, but we're jeopardising all our schools, university, and club teams as well.

QUESTION:               How did this happen?  I mean, had no one thought about the possibility that this may happen?        

GLASSON:               Yes, I mean I - what's happened really is with the indemnity situation last year there was various groups that were going to fall through the cracks.  This is one group of doctors that have fallen through the cracks, and we've got to make sure we've plugged that hole so that they can continue to provide the services that our sporting teams require.

                Now as you know it was rather complex last year, this whole issue of indemnity.  The Government put forward a number of strategies to try and support the - the medical indemnity industry - and one of those strategies was such that the scheme would only apply to instances that occurred within the Australian foreshores.  And obviously that immediately excluded any doctors who were treating patients overseas - more importantly treating our sporting teams overseas.

QUESTION:               Has it led to a bit of a panic in the Government?  I mean, we're only - what - months away - six months away from the Olympics.

GLASSON:               Well, I think that the Government have had plenty of phone calls.  They probably will get more phone calls as of today, about various groups who now say they cannot travel overseas as a consequence of not being able to have medical support, and that doctors who give their time normally pro bono - in other words at no charge - are saying "Listen, we can't do it, because essentially we haven't got the medical cover required."

                So hopefully sanity and common sense will prevail, and the Government, with the medical defence organisations, by the way, who've got a responsibility here, must ensure that adequate and affordable cover can be provided so that our sporting teams, as I say, can go and represent this country as they do so well.

QUESTION:               What about our political leaders? What about, say, John Howard?  Does he travel with a doctor?

BILL GLASSON:      Yes he does.  He travels with Doctor Grahame Keller, who's a lovely chap.  And essentially he too will need to have medical indemnity cover.  So it will impact on him as it will any other political groups who travel overseas, requiring the services of a doctor.  So yes, it will - it will impact directly.

QUESTION:               So it's his personal interests.  So do you think we should see this issue resolved fairly quickly?

 GLASSON:              I think so. As I said, I think the Prime Minister is - will be very aware of the situation, as is Tony Abbott.  And I think -  I mean, they're saying that the medical defence organisations have got a responsibility, and I agree with them totally.  The Government have done a huge amount to try and support the medical defence organisations.  They have to share some responsibility here, and don't keep harping back to the Government yet again.

                But I think the Government with a stroke of a pen can actually extend these two schemes - the high cost claim scheme, and the exceptional claims scheme, to make sure it covers Australians who are injured overseas, whether it be sporting events or whether it be politicians representing the country.

COMPERE:              So now these are a couple of groups that have fallen through the cracks.  Will there be other groups that put their hands up and say hang on a minute, you're getting it, so it's our turn?

GLASSON:               Sally, I think that's true.  I think that in reality as this falls - as this falls into practical application, there may be other groups out there that do go and support Australians overseas in some capacity, that may be even in an involuntary capacity, where they're supporting, you know, various service groups who are providing services to nations requiring general support, then our doctors who go and support those teams, they'd find themselves in a predicament where they're not covered.

COMPERE:              Do you think the Government may be a bit nervous about that?  If it's going to open the floodgates?

GLASSON:               I don't think necessarily.  I think common sense again, we're obviously not asking that we cover Australian doctors who are treating non-Australians.  We're really asking here that Australian doctors who are treating Australians who are serving either in a sporting sense or a political sense or whatever it be, are in an overseas capacity, then obviously we should accept responsibility, because if any claim arises in that situation, it will be heard in the Australian judiciary, so it's actually part of the Australian system anyway, it just - it's really defining where the incident occurred.

                But there are Australians - Australian citizens, being treated by Australian doctors.  It's just the fact is that it's often on another soil, where the incident may occur.

QUESTION:                 Now, if with a worst-case scenario for the Athens Olympics, if they don't reduce the price to low enough, we'll have fewer doctors sent?  Will that mean a smaller team, or what ...

GLASSON:               Well certainly obviously it may impact significantly.  Now I suggest the Australian team will not go at all unless it has a medical contingent.  You can't expect people to go to Greece and expect to receive the appropriate level of medical services that you'd receive from your own medical teams. 

                                    So I would suggest that the Olympic team would not go at all unless we had sufficient affordable cover for those doctors, and also make sure that there's sufficient cover for the participants themselves.  There's two sides to this equation - to make sure the doctor's covered, but also to make sure that those people who need to get compensation for whatever reason are able to get the compensation through the normal channels.

QUESTION:               So you're pretty confident that the athletes would make a stand like that?

GLASSON:               I think very much so.  Not only the athletes.  I think every Australian would stand up and say "Not on.  We won't accept it."   And I think very quickly both the medical defence organisations and the Government would sort it out.  No, I think they will.  I think that this Government has shown a lot of common sense in addressing this issue over the last three or four months, and I think as I said at the outset, there were going to be people who fall through the cracks.  This is one group, and no doubt there'll be other groups over the next few months that we'll pick up.

QUESTION:               Now, it's alright to talk about the prominent ones.  The Olympians and stuff.  But what about the school groups?  Does it just mean there's going to be fewer school children ...

GLASSON:               Well, that's exactly right.  I mean, at the end of the day it's those schools that go and represent, you know, various schools around Australia who go overseas to places like New Zealand, south east Asia and Europe.

                                    Those doctors normally give their time - they're often the parent of one of the participants, or a friend of one of the participants.  They give their time at no charge.  But all they ask in return is that they can get medical indemnity cover.   But essentially those kids will not travel at all.  There's no two ways about it.  And so again it - it - we can all talk about the sort of high-profile Olympians and footballers, but in reality there's a lot of schoolkids out there who go and represent Australia round the world, who obviously this will impact on, and I think we've got to make sure we sort this out as quickly as possible in the interests of all those people concerned.

QUESTION:               And this issue arose purely from the ACT Brumbies, is that right?

GLASSON:               Well, no, we've been talking about this for a few weeks.  The ACT Brumbies obviously highlighted the issue yesterday or the day before.  As I said, I mentioned it to the Minister last week and mentioned it to the Department last week because there have been people writing to the AMA indicating their concerns about not being able to obtain cover, and we knew that the medical defence organisations are sitting on the fence saying listen, we're not going to provide this cover because we've got to go and get extra reinsurance.  That's not acceptable, and obviously they have a responsibility to provide sufficient cover and flexible cover to each and every Australian doctor, no matter what realm of work they do.

                Any more questions, guys?

QUESTION:                 Just run us by who's to blame again.

GLASSON:                  Well, I think that to point the thing - the reality is here we've got a complex situation left over from last year, and we knew that in that situation the various groups of - in our community - that may fall through the cracks.  And so I don't think it's someone to blame at this stage.  All I want to make sure is those people that are responsible for getting a solution deliver a solution.  And that's both the - our political leaders, but also the medical defence organisations as well.  So there's dual responsibility here to get a solution, as I said I think it's just very quickly and easy enough to sort out, it's just a matter of someone standing up and saying the job's done and the job's fixed.

                  Okay guys.

QUESTION:                 Thank you very much for that.

GLASSON:                  Pleasure.