Interview - AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson with Chris Uhlmann, Radio ABC666, Canberra Breakfast - Doctors' rally on IBNR tax
E & OE - PROOF ONLY
ULHMANN: I don't know if you've had a conversation with your GP any time in the last year or so, but I had a fairly surprising one with my GP last year - and she was a great GP, Anna - and she told me last year that she was closing down her practice because it would, simply was not affordable for her to continue.
And, of course, this year we've seen as much trouble as I can recall in the ranks of doctors coming up to the change in the financial, financial year. We had the problem with insurance, you may recall, and doctors here saying that they may pull out of the local system.
And now, all the trouble with doctors is over the levy that the Federal Government's imposing, which is on the incurred but not reported claims because of their collapse - the collapse last year of their major medical insurer.
Now that problem's not going away, and buy the end of this month there are threats that we may see doctors pull out of the system because of that levy.
Dr Bill Glasson is the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association. Good morning.
GLASSON: A very good morning to you Chris.
ULHMANN: Now, the rallies continue. You had a huge one at Randwick Racecourse yesterday. What's the membership saying about the levy?
GLASSON: Chris, we had about 4,000 doctors there yesterday - very angry, very sort of, I suppose, frustrated about the whole system. I think the message to the public out there that the levy is just one component.
I suppose it's the last straw that's broken the patient's back. I keep saying - and they're saying that the system is wrong, the system is, has failed probably about a decade ago, and what they're asking for, really more than anything Chris, is a new model, I suppose, of indemnity in this country. A model that guarantees affordability for patients and guarantees security for doctors. And the current system does not do that.
Now, the levy, in reality, if there is a true liability there - in other words, that the doctors or the patients owe a certain amount of money to pay for past claims - then the doctors will reconsider it, but they'll only reconsider it on the grounds that there's some forward vision.
Now, currently there is no forward vision, and this is what we're saying to the Government. We've gone to them and given them a series of proposals as to how we'd like to move forward, and we're waiting for them to come back and say what they're going to do.
ULHMANN: Yeah, I guess the Federal Government would say this is not our problem. It was your insurer that fell over, we're just trying to clean up the mess, and this is the way we've decided to go about it.
GLASSON: Yeah, I mean that's, that's the Government response. The Government response is saying this is a doctors problem, not a community problem.
Can I suggest to you then, that as of the 1st of November, they will see probably the biggest mass exodus I think of doctors out of the system that they've seen for a long time. And when you, as the patient, cannot access the Anna's of the world, Chris, it's then that you'll ask yourself, 'why has the Government allowed this system to collapse to the extent that I can't access medical services in this country?'
And that's what's happening - is that doctors at both specialist level and at general practice level, are saying this is too hard, they've had enough, and they've had enough of a system, as I said, that's failed a decade ago.
And what we're doing, we're paying for, I suppose, past judicial system, a legal system, that has been complex, expensive, has not been in the interests of the patients or the doctors.
ULHMANN: With respect Dr Glasson, we have seen threats before of people saying that they would withdraw their labour either for, you know, a little while or forever, and those threats haven't materialised. What makes you think that they will this time?
GLASSON: Chris, I think it's being demonstrated already. Just for in the sense that doctors can really adapt themselves to many many different tasks in society.
ULHMANN: And you would be expecting too that some doctors who are reaching the end of their career might go on for a year or two, might just decide, well no I'll stop now.
GLASSON: That's exactly right Chris, and this is what they're saying to us. And these are the doctors that actually do all our teaching. These are the doctors have the experience that we call upon - particularly those difficult cases - and we're going to wake up on the 1st of November and they're not going to be there.
And again, they're the people that provide the locums and the support for the doctors in full-time practice. So it is a disaster situation to lose that experience and that support out of the medical system.
ULHMANN: Dr Glasson do you get any sense at all - and you've been talking in strong terms for a while now - that the Federal Government is listening or will listen to what you're saying?
GLASSON: Well, I think, I think the Prime Minister's listening. I, my concern is that a lot people around that Cabinet table are not listening, and I suppose it's my role to get out there and make sure that they hear the message very clearly that this is not a problem about doctors.
This is a problem for our community and this is a problem that our community will be unable to access medical services in this country - both, in the sense there won't be a doctor, and if you can, it will not be affordable because the costs are being driven up by ever increasing medical indemnity premiums and the frustration in the system.
This, I suppose, that's what came out of yesterday Chris, was that doctors are so frustrated as to why we're allowing this to happen when we do have one of the best systems in the world, and we've had one of the most affordable systems in the world.
But, in reality, is that this system is falling apart.
ULHMANN: Dr Glasson, thank you.
GLASSON: Thanks very much, and good morning to you, Chris.
Ends