Interview With Dr Haikerwal on Ru-486

Last night, Nationals Senator Fiona Nash called for the ban to be lifted.

And joining us on the line now is Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, the National President of the Australian Medical Association. Dr Haikerwal, good morning. Do you think Australian women should be granted access to RU486?

DR HAIKERWAL: The position of the AMA is that, where it's legal, this drug should be made available as a substitute for current surgical abortions which are carried out…as an alternative. What this is is a safer method for some women. It has with it very many less side effects and problems than surgical abortion, because surgical abortions have problems not only of the procedure itself, but also of anaesthetic.

And it's not going to make the decision for women any easier, it's just going to give another way of conducting what is already a surgical process.

NEWSREADER: Well, this drug has been used successfully in Europe and America for many years, but it seems there are still many concerns. What are they?

HAIKERWAL: Well, it's been used successfully in over two million women worldwide. And the problems are problems of gynaecological surgery and problems of gynaecological operations and caesarean sections, anyway. And that is that people can get infections with a particular bug that's actually quite difficult to pick up in terms of finding that, because it doesn't have the normal sorts of symptoms of a temperature rise and so on when people get this infection.

So the cases that've been reported around people dying from infections really are the same sort of complications you get from any sort of gynaecological procedure or obstetric procedure.

NEWSREADER: Well, the push for the ban to be lifted from this drug initially extends from a push to give women in the bush with limited access to specialists greater choices. But many doctors we've seen in the weeks since are saying that it's these very same women who might be in danger because they don't have enough access for follow up appointments. Do you see that there's a very real concern there?

HAIKERWAL: No, look, I think that whole thing was a side issue, and is really a furphy. I mean nobody in their right mind would put a woman onto a tablet like Mifepristone and also then give them some pessaries to help them have an abortion when there's no surgical follow up, or there's no medical follow up. I mean, it just wouldn't happen.

You always do these sorts of things under medical supervision where there is the option to go surgery to do a curette, you know, should the tablets not be successful in expelling the contents of the womb in the case of an early pregnancy.

NEWSREADER: Tell me, are you fearful that Health Minister Tony Abbott, who has well publicised anti-abortion and conservative views, could be blind-sighted to the benefits of this drug?

HAIKERWAL: Look, I believe that there's going to be an information session today for MPs, and I believe that Tony Abbott is actually going to meet Professor de Costa. And, certainly, we intend to make available the information that we have to us to the parliamentarians as well. And that's on the public record already, so there's nothing new, but we still want to make sure it is in one place so they actually can access it.

It's, you know, people are entitled to their own views and so on, but in terms of medications and having it put onto the Australian formulary here is a very robust process called the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and that process needs to be used. And they will analyse this in a cold headed, scientific way, and that's the way it has to be done. Not with emotions, but with the best interests of community to hand.

NEWSREADER: All right. If we could talk for a moment about bird flu, and authorities across the country are being tested today to see how they would cope with an outbreak. I imagine you would welcome this move?

HAIKERWAL: Look, it's important to do these sorts of manoeuvres and testing of scenarios, which is good, and that's happening at a national level.

What we've got to do is do some of this testing, allow some of this testing to happen at a community level, with community doctors, with community hospitals and other members of the community that will obviously be involved when events happen, should they eventuate.

I think it's important that we…we've seen an awful lot of money be put into this, and that's very good and very important. And even into the regions we actually need to see some of that funding directed towards these sorts of operations and scenarios locally, so that we can be sure that we have the right sorts of ways of dealing with things at a local level where people will be affected and people will be getting concerned and seeking help.

NEWSREADER: And at a grassroots level, are doctors prepared for a pandemic?

HAIKERWAL: Look, I think we're getting more prepared. In many ways the last bit of the jigsaw was involving the family doctor, the local community services and local ED departments. And I think that bit of the jigsaw is something we're working very closely and very fast with government to fix up, and I think that's very important.

And part of that is to make sure there's an early warning system so that if we do detect cases early we know where they are and can divert resources to that direction. And the other thing is to make sure that people do have some scenario practices at the local level.

NEWSREADER: The AMA's Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, it's always great talking to you. You have provided a better insight into both of those issues for us this morning, thank you.