Interview - AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, with Alan Jones, Radio 2GB -Health care system - 34 specialists have resigned from the public hospital system in the last week

JONES:        I spoke to Bill Glasson on Monday, you might remember, the President of the AMA.  And he had addressed a rally at Randwick Racecourse on Sunday, warning of the crisis in health care relating to one issue only - doctors.  I said then government had better start taking this matter seriously because this is far beyond anything that we've met in the past.

Yesterday it continued - 34 New South Wales specialists resigned.  That's from the public hospital system.  So you go into the public hospital system today and try and get specialist care, and you see what happens.  I thought we'd talk to Bill Glasson.  He's on the line.  Dr Glasson, good morning.

GLASSON:  Hi, and a very good morning to you.

JONES:        We said this would happen.  It's going to get worse before it gets better.

GLASSON:  Absolutely, it's a tidal wave, Alan, and it's starting in western Sydney and it's going to go right through New South Wales and spread up to Queensland, and I presume down to Victoria, as well.

JONES:        Just explain one thing to my listeners.  These people now have resigned from service in the public hospital system?

GLASSON:  Yes.

JONES:        Right.  They'll continue in private practice...

GLASSON:  Yes.

JONES:        What does that mean to the patient?

GLASSON:  It means that you and I, the patients who are trying to access service in our public hospitals, will not be able to access them.  Now, that includes a lot of the emergency centres as well because we need orthopaedic surgeons.  We need all these specialists to actually treat people with acute emergencies.

JONES:        So just putting it simply, though, because some of these people who have resigned are anaesthetists.  So now, you want to go for a procedure, whatever it might be, they say, 'Sorry, we can't perform the operation.  We don't have anyone to deliver the anaesthetic.'

GLASSON:  That's exactly right - no one to put you to sleep and, more importantly, nobody to wake you up, and that's a desperate situation.

JONES:        And so then there's a neurosurgeon, two general surgeons, a plastic surgeon, a neurologist, a cardiothoracic specialist, five orthopaedic surgeons working in southwest Sydney have resigned?

GLASSON:  All key people to providing appropriate service to the public hospitals of New South Wales.

JONES:        And you and I said on Monday, and I know, we're 'talking to a doctor and he's practising - we believe all this - so, of course, he'd say that, wouldn't he?  He's a doctor.  It's self-interest.  He's a greedy bloke, he drives a Mercedes.'  Well, you can say all that, whatever you like.

But I've got to tell you, at Blacktown Hospital eight obstetricians have walked off the job.  This is in a big highly populated area.  Go the central coast, eight ear nose and throat specialists have resigned, or are threatening to leave.  Go to Orange, three orthopaedic surgeons have quit - wherever you turn.  Now, how does this crisis get resolved, Bill Glasson?

GLASSON:  Look, we've got to have an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister and his advisor.  I'm meeting up with one of them, today.  We've got to have a moratorium, number one, Alan.  We've got to put this thing on hold and we've then got to go and, very quickly - and I emphasise, 'very quickly' - put up a series of proposals I suppose that we can actually move forward with.

The trouble at the moment, Alan, there is no forward vision, there is no forward vision where we're heading.  And the reality is that all the doctor's fee - is putting their hands in their patients' pockets to fork out more and more money into a system that actually failed 10 years ago...

JONES:        Right, well now...

GLASSON:  ...the really illegal system and a judicial system that drove this to the depths that we're currently in...

JONES:        Yes, well, now I...

GLASSON:  ...and they're frustrated.

JONES:        I can assure you, and I can say this because I say it to the public, I spoke to the Prime Minister off-air about this yesterday.  Tony Abbott is unable to do anything until he is officially sworn in as Health Minister, and that won't be until next Tuesday.  And I can assure you this is one of the highest priorities, and I'll be making that point to him when I talk to him on Wednesday.  So we might then talk again about the middle of next week.  Meanwhile try and hold the line.

GLASSON:  That would be good, Alan, that would be good.

JONES:        Right - Dr Bill Glasson from the AMA.

Ends