Interview - AMA Presdient, Dr Bill Glasson, with Peta Donald, ABC Radio 'AM' - AMA President critical of 'litigious culture'

COMPERE:             The Australian Medical Association is upping the ante in its battle with the Government over the medical indemnity crisis.

The AMA's President, Doctor Bill Glasson, is talking to general practitioners in Tasmania today, as he seeks to ensure that doctors see the crisis as national and not limited to those specialists who are threatening to leave public hospitals in New South Wales.

The AMA is working to build pressure for an overhaul of the entire system of insurance for doctors. In the process, Dr Glasson has drawn fire from lawyers over his claims that a culture of litigation is the reason the cost of doctors' insurance premiums has escalated.

PETA DONALD:       It's not only surgeons in Sydney who are feeling the medical indemnity woes.

DONALD ROSE: It's a major cause of stress and uncertainty just not knowing what's going to happen and I think, when we were told it was an 18-month moratorium, you just sort of conceives another 18-months of not knowing what's going to evolve. It just was quite disappointing.

PETA DONALD:       Fifteen per cent of doctors in Tasmania were insured with the failed UMP (United Medical Protection). Donald Rose, a GP in Launceston, was one of them. He says premiums for all GPs have gone up, even for those who weren't with UMP, and the sorts of procedures they're covered to perform is becoming more and more limited.

DONALD ROSE: You know, a typical example of this is an implant insertion that we all do regularly on a daily basis, we're going to be possibly told in the not too distant future that our insurance will no longer cover any complication from this procedure and that we'll have to drop it. And if that's the case, we'll then have to refer patients to either specially registered GPs or specialists, which will just increase the cost for everyone involved.

PETA DONALD:       It's an intolerable development, according to the Federal AMA President, Bill Glasson.

BILL GLASSON: The patients want their general practitioners to provide procedurals, procedural medicine to them, so they can actually do things that the patients want in their local environment.

PETA DONALD:       Dr Glasson says GPs are working in an environment where they're constantly worried about being sued, and he blames a culture of litigation.

BILL GLASSON: Our style of life in this country is being threatened by a litigious sort of environment that is, I feel, un-Australian. And I think all Australians out there are starting to stand up and say, enough is enough. Our doctors are saying, enough is enough.

PETA DONALD:       But the Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association says it's not so simple, and with tort law reform in most States reining in the rights of patients to sue, it's too easy to blame a culture of litigation.

Lawyer, Catherine Cheek.

CATHERINE CHEEK: They are caused by a number of issues, including the mismanagement of the fund by UMP, and including the problems with reinsurance that Australian insurers are having generally, but it is, there is absolutely no evidence to support the argument that it has anything to do with litigation.

Ends