Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President, Sydney

QUESTION: The Queensland branch says that they're going to recommend their members down their scalpels within the next 24 hours if it's not resolved.

PHELPS: Australia's doctors need assurance, they need confidence to be able to turn up to work and know that they're not going to be sent bankrupt if something goes wrong. They need to know that the insurance that they've been paying for years is going to cover them in the long term in the event of an accident.

QUESTION: Is the AMA united, all branches united on this?

PHELPS: All branches are waiting for an answer out of this meeting and we are trying to find a way through this. It is a legal maze, it is a very difficult and complex situation and out of today's meeting. We hope to come out with a solution that will give some security to doctors and to patients.

We need to have a short-term solution to, first of all, what happens between now and 30 June, what happens 30 June and beyond and what happens to the claims that are already in the pipeline where doctors, if UMP does go into liquidation, doctors will not be covered for the full amount of those outstanding claims. So we need to find out what's going to happen there and hopefully get some government guarantees for those outstanding claims.

QUESTION: Helen Coonan……

PHELPS: The Federal Government needs to give assurances on those outstanding claims, they need to outline the exact details of the short-term plan for the period from now to 30 June and they need to give us an absolutely iron-clad assurance about the long-term care and rehabilitation of people who are severely injured.

QUESTION: Helen Coonan says she can't do much more until she's spoken to the liquidator. Is that going to help?

PHELPS: I would like to think out of today's meeting we might be able to come up with a solution other than liquidation. That would be an ideal. It may be a very ambitious ideal but we're certainly going to be looking at those options.

QUESTION: How do you think the Government has handled the issue this morning?

PHELPS: I think it's a very complex and difficult issue. We would like this to have all been in place, well before now, but we have to look forward, we can't afford the luxury of looking back at the moment and we're very confident that with all groups working together - and the medical profession is absolutely united on this issue - if we can get the State governments moving forward with tort law reform, the Federal Government moving forward with a long-term plan for the care of the severely injured, with a long-term plan for review of the whole legal system, then I believe that with goodwill we can get through this difficult time.

QUESTION: It should never have got to this stage.

PHELPS: As I said, we can't afford the luxury of looking back and saying if only. What we can do is to say that the AMA has been working on this issue for the better part of 15 years, we are well-placed to advise government and to lead the medical profession through this and we will come out with a health system that is sustainable in the long term but we do need action from the Federal Government. We need it now, and we need a commitment from all of the State governments to proceed with tort law reform so that we can have a system that not only makes common sense but also is socially just.

QUESTION: How long is the meeting?

PHELPS: It's hard to say. It could be up to two hours, maybe longer, but we'll be just thrashing it out until we've found a solution.

Ends