Productivity Commission Must Get Out of Canberra If Health Workforce Study Is To Be Effective - AMA
AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, today urged the Productivity Commission to get an understanding of the realities of health workforce shortages by getting out to the towns and suburbs and remote areas of the country where the shortages are hitting patients and communities and overworked doctors hard.
Dr Glasson said the workforce shortages hit different areas in different ways and the Commission could not draw conclusions for its study by sifting through reports and hearing submissions in Canberra.
"The researchers have got to get out and have a look at the GP surgeries, the country hospital wards and the emergency departments across the country to witness the pressure that the medical workforce is under," Dr Glasson said.
Dr Glasson said the study would be a timely follow-up to the AMA/Access Economics GP Workforce study of 2001.
"The conclusion will be the same as ours four years ago - there is a shortage of doctors," Dr Glasson said.
"Nobody believed us when we said there were shortages back then but now there is a lot of catch-up policy from the Federal and State Governments to plug the workforce holes we identified.
"Because of the complexity of the supply and demand factors behind medical workforce shortages - and the length of time it takes to train and recruit health professionals - the Productivity Commission is one of the few agencies with the expertise to conduct this type of study.
"The AMA hopes that maintaining the high quality of Australian medical practice would be the focus of the Commission's work.
"This means retaining the key role of our medical Colleges in training our future doctors, and being aware that it is governments who ultimately dictate supply by allocating and funding medical training numbers.
"Contrary to comments today by the Treasurer, the Colleges do not restrict the supply of specialists - the Federal and State governments control the levers affecting doctor supply. They control undergraduate training places, GP places, and specialist places through public hospital funding, which is always inadequate.
"We also urge the Commission to comprehend the vital teaching and training functions of our major public hospitals and the importance of properly funding clinicians and clinical environments for training the specialists now in short supply.
"Another factor is that many doctors are approaching retirement age. We have to look at ways to get qualified doctors currently not working back into the system.
"The AMA looks forward to consulting and working with the Productivity Commission on this important, but overdue, study," Dr Glasson said.