The AMA will be hosting doctor forums around the country this Sunday to gather more first-hand evidence and experiences from the frontline of medical service delivery of the anticipated devastating effects of the Government’s Medicare reforms.

The forums – to be attended by hundreds of grassroots AMA members and non-members – will be held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide.

Forums have already been held in Hobart and Canberra, and the message from those meetings is that doctors and their patients want the Government to scrap its plans to cut the Medicare patient rebate by $5, freeze Medicare rebate indexation until 2018, and introduce an unfair and inequitable GO co-payment model.

AMA President, A/Prof Brian Owler, said today that one of the biggest factors feeding into the Government’s current leadership divisions is the fact that voters are strongly opposed to the Government’s proposed changes – and that is what they have been telling their local MPs and Senators.

A/Prof Owler said the Government showed last month that it was hearing the howls of protest from the electorate when it dropped plans to force patients to pay an extra $20 for short GP consultations, but that was only fixing part of the problem.

“New Health Minister, Sussan Ley, has promised to be more consultative and that is what she has been doing,” A/Prof Owler said.

“We are using these forums to gather further evidence for the Minister of the need for the Government to scrap the rest of its fatally flawed Medicare reform package.

“The Government’s proposals hit disadvantaged patients the hardest, and threaten the viability of general practices across the country. The Government’s Medicare changes are fiscal policy, not health policy. They must be scrapped.

“The leadership team that emerges from the Coalition party room next Tuesday must send a clear message to the Australian community – the Medicare reforms, including the flawed co-payment model, are no longer Government policy.”
The AMA will be collating the evidence from the various forums to present to the Minister.

For Twitter users, the hashtag for the Forums is #MedicareForum

CONTACT:        John Flannery                     02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761

The AMA Forums this Sunday, 8 February 2015, are at:

Media are not allowed to be present throughout the Forums. Media doorstop and picfac opportunities for individual Forums will be advised. Check with contacts below.

SYDNEY

11.00am-12.30pm
Room 18, Ground Floor
Building EA
University of Western Sydney (Parramatta Campus)
James Ruse Drive
PARRAMATTA NSW 2150
Media Contact:                                     Lachlan Jones, 0419 402 955

MELBOURNE

11.00am-12.30pm
Kenneth Myer Building
Melbourne Brain Centre
30 Royal Parade
PARKVILLE VIC 3052
Media Contact:                                     Felicity Ryan, 0437 450 506 

ADELAIDE

10.30am-12.00pm
3^rd Floor Auditorium
Conference Centre
Wakefield Clinic
270 Wakefield Street
ADELAIDE SA
Media Contact:                                     Joe Hooper, 0419 804 537

BRISBANE

5.00pm-6.00pm
AMAQ
88 L’Estrange Terrace
KELVIN GROVE QLD 4059
Media Contact:                                     Alex Purnell, 0439 483 858