Doorstop AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, Sydney - Resignation of doctors in Sydney's west this week; Allegations by Senator Helen Coonan that doctors are holding the Government to ransom

GLASSON:      Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming along. 

I'd just like to make a general statement about the situation we currently find ourselves in.   It was a situation, I suppose, we anticipated was going to happen and I did signal to the Government, or the AMA did, over the last, really, couple of months this would sort of, I suppose, spearhead into a situation where doctors would finally decide they're going to move out of the system, I suppose, in mass numbers.

We've had a steady, I suppose, retirement of doctors both across speciality areas and in general practice for the last 12 months or so but this IBNR tax has been the trigger.  It's not the whole issue but it's the trigger, I suppose, that's led to a lot of doctors saying, well, enough's enough, we're out of this system.

They're retiring out of our public hospitals where we can least afford to lose them.  These are the doctors that provide all the emergency services to our accident and emergency departments.  They provide all the elective surgery to our patients and so ultimately it's going to mean a restriction of medical services in this country until this issue is sorted out.

I think the focus has to be on where we should move from here and obviously we are seeking urgent appointments with the Prime Minister's advisers as well as obviously the incoming Health Minister.

I think if we can sit down and constructively address this issue we can hopefully avert a wave of resignations, I think, up and down the east coast.  I believe it will extend across the whole of New South Wales, up into Queensland and down into Victoria within the next 48 hours unless something is done very quickly.

But I think if the Government can sort of come to the table, address the problem in the sense of providing, I suppose, a long-term solution to this problem - we don't want a quick fix, which we've had in the last couple of months.  We want a long-term solution so we can go back to our members and, more importantly, our patients, saying that we can deliver you an affordable system and a secure system into the future.

We've got to make sure those patients who need care get care, so we need a fair system.  We've got to make sure that the patients who deserve resources get them and it doesn't go to a whole, I suppose, a complex legal and administrative system.

QUESTION:     What sort of extent do you see those resignations in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria going to?

GLASSON:      I can see them actually leading to mass closures of hospitals across this country.  In reality, you cannot run a hospital without your orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists, etcetera, and the reality is, unless you've got those specialists on board those departments will obviously have to at least reduce those services significantly if not close down.  And so we're trying to prevent that happening by being proactive, I suppose, in getting some negotiations underway as soon as possible.

QUESTION:     How quickly is that?

GLASSON:      I think that could happen within the next 48 hours, because there's going to be mass action, up in Queensland as well as in New South Wales.  I think that in New South Wales the doctors' contracts for the public hospitals have come up for review.  A lot of them are now deciding that because of that timing they're just not going to renew them.  So they're just deciding that, as I said, enough is enough and they're moving out of the system.

QUESTION:     What's going to need to happen in the next 48 hours to prevent the closures starting?

GLASSON:      I feel what will need to happen is a signal from the Prime Minister at least saying that I think what we need is a moratorium on this IBNR tax and I think once that is signalled, but along with that moratorium we need the Prime Minister to come out and say, listen, we're going to form a working party that is given strict terms of reference and a strict time frame in which to actually come up with some answers and I would suggest to you that would need to be less than probably eight to 12 weeks. 

We do not want this to drag on.  We certainly do not want to defer the problem.  So make that very clear, we do not want to defer this problem, we want to address this problem now so that the people of Australia can be reassured as from Christmas, say, that they have a sustainable medical system to call upon.

QUESTION:     You'll fly to Canberra tonight, is that right?

GLASSON:      Actually, I'm back to Brisbane tonight.  I'm meeting up with one of the Prime Minister's senior advisers in Brisbane and then we'll be down to Canberra tomorrow morning to try and meet up with, obviously, members of the department and try to signal what should be done as quickly as possible.

QUESTION:     Is it the truth what Helen Coonan stated that doctors are now trying to hold the country to ransom or the Government to ransom?

GLASSON:      That's a typical Coonan response and I am saddened to hear Helen Coonan say that.  I think Helen Coonan has done, tried to do, the very best for this system in difficult circumstances and to see her coming out and attacking the messenger - and can I tell Helen that the AMA and the profession is telling her this system is not working - to come out and say that this is because doctors are holding the country to ransom is very shortsighted because in reality when her voters go to the ballot box in the next six to 12 months, they'll ask what did Helen Coonan do for the people of Australia and what did Kay Patterson do?

Now, in reality they have probably tried to do, tried to have some impact but the impact, particularly through Cabinet, has not been strong enough to actually deliver an outcome.

QUESTION:     Do you have updated numbers on resignations?

GLASSON:      I haven't to date.  I know that there's 30 to 40, obviously, specialists gone from the western suburbs of Sydney out to Orange but, as I said, I think you'll find that that trickle will be a sort of a wholesale wave of resignations over the next week or so unless something is done.

QUESTION:     Have you ever seen anything like this before?

GLASSON:      No, I haven't.  Unfortunately, and sadly I'm the one in this position seeing this happen now.  I keep saying that Australia has one of the finest medical systems in the world and, to date, has one of the most affordable and equitable medical systems in the world and this is being destroyed before our eyes and I suppose the message out there to government is that I do not want to see this government have written on its tombstone that they oversaw the destruction of the finest medical system in the world and all we need is a little bit of leadership from some of our senior politicians, particularly around that Cabinet table, to recognise the problem, first and foremost, and recognise this is not a doctors' problem, this is a community problem and this is about delivering services to the community across the country and so we really need them to really provide the leadership and certainly the community wants them to provide the leadership that they expect from the politicians that they vote in.

QUESTION:     The PM yesterday said the Government can't keep bailing out groups and organisations every time there's a problem.  Where does the Government sit?

GLASSON:      They're not bailing us out, by the way.  What we're asking really is for legislative changes.  They are in government to actually define legislation and what we're really asking is for a new model of medical indemnity in this country.

Now, this extends not only for medical indemnity.  I keep saying that I saw in the paper yesterday where the lifesavers are trying to raise a million dollars for their insurance.  I hear examples of where families are suing other families at birthday parties because an accident happens to a child.  I'm talking about litigation across this whole nation, more than just medical litigation.  I'm talking about every element of your life and there seems to be, I suppose, a mentality developed in the Australian psyche that if something happens it's somebody else's fault and we have to seek some sort of compensation.

We cannot continue down that road, therefore, we need some legislative reform at both federal and state level, and I remind the states they still have a significant amount to do in this area, to ensure that we have a sustainable - not only medical system - but we have a sustainable society where things are fair and equitable and we just don't turn to the legal system every time something goes wrong.

Ends