Medical Leaders Meet on Safety and Quality

AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, yesterday chaired an historic meeting of medical groups from around Australia dedicated to improving safety and quality in medical practice.

In a first for the profession, over 30 representatives from the AMA, the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC), the Medical Indemnity Insurers Association of Australia (MIIAA), Federal and State Governments, and key medical and community associations agreed patients would be the winners under a better coordinated, national approach to risk management.

In his opening comments at the joint Risk Management Forum at Old Parliament House in Canberra, Dr Glasson said Australians enjoyed access to world-class health care in a system where the medical profession continues to improve its risk management.

Despite the Federal Government's efforts to restore security and stability to the industry with its medical indemnity rescue package, there's room for a better coordinated approach to risk management by all individuals and organisations involved in medical practice.

"A more coordinated approach by individual practitioners, colleges, MDOs, medical boards, private hospitals, and state governments and their health systems will help make a good system even better," Dr Glasson said.

"Doctors currently comply with a range of risk management activities so they can maintain medical registration, College qualifications and access to public or private hospitals.

"Doctors often have to duplicate these activities because of a lack of communication between the parties concerned and because these parties don't recognise each other's risk management activities.

"Risk management must be an integral part of continuing professional development and medical training," Dr Glasson said.

Recognising the benefits of a more coordinated approach to risk management, the AMA, CPMC and MIIAA formed a working party. At their first meeting in May this year, the group called for a national pilot risk management strategy by June 2005.

Over the next 12 months the working party will look at ways to target the needs of individual doctors and coordinate existing risk management strategy.

"We need an integrated, national, craft group and area of practice-specific risk management strategy, which will improve the health outcomes of our patients.

"The new strategy will be clinician driven and reduce red tape, maximising time for patient care," Dr Glasson said. 

18 June 2004

CONTACT: 
Judith Tokley, AMA (02) 6270 5471 / (0408) 824 306
Dr Andrew Child, CPMC  M-Tu (02) 95158356, F-Sa (03) 94122916 / (0407) 941 153
Mark Valena, MIIAA (03) 9347 3900 / (0407) 788 811