Transcript - ABC '7.30 Report' - AMA to sue Health Minister over slur on association President

Dr Phelps was fiercely critical of the measure, arguing that the new guidelines contravened international medical advice.

Dr Wooldridge went on radio to accuse her of not having the medical qualifications to comment on the matter.

Now, the AMA is suing him for defaming Dr Phelps.

The relationship between the doctors' lobby group and successive ministers of health has always been a rocky one, but the timing for such a bruising stoush is not great.

Political editor Fran Kelly reports.

DR KERRYN PHELPS, PRESIDENT, AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: I've today had legal advice from the AMA's legal experts, and they've told me that I can sue and that we will win.

FRAN KELLY: It's official.

The simmering row between the AMA President and the Federal Health Minister has now boiled over, and the two will slug it out in the courts, and it's these few words that have sent them there.

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE, FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER (LAST WEEK): The majority of medical opinion is not with Dr Phelps whose only qualification is with the media, not in any sort of specialist medical area.

FRAN KELLY: That was just too much for the former celebrity TV doctor and current AMA President.

DR KERRYN PHELPS: Not only do I have 18 years experience as a general practitioner but I also in 1997, sat the fellowship exams that our new graduates into general practice will sit, and that gave me the Fellowship of General Practice.

Now, that is an internationally recognised gold standard specialist qualification in general practice.

FRAN KELLY: And there's more.

DR KERRYN PHELPS: To say that my comments on behalf of the AMA and the medical profession are misleading and dangerous to the public, is an insult to the profession and it's an insult to me personally.

FRAN KELLY: Michael Wooldridge was stung by the AMA's criticism of his Budget move to tighten up the pharmaceutical benefit schedule for cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The move implied doctors were administering these drugs too freely, something doctors deny.

DR PAUL HEMMING, ROYAL COLLEGE OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS: There is a very serious need for those guidelines to be revised.

I believe along with most GPs that the guidelines are far too tight, and we need to be putting pressure on the pharmaceutical benefit system to make those drugs available as a subsidised drug for much greater numbers of patients.

FRAN KELLY: But the Health Minister stands by his policy and his expert medical advice and has dismissed Kerryn Phelps's legal threats as a stunt by an irrelevant trade union.

Others disagree.

DR KEITH WOOLLARD, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMA: Dr Wooldridge's reported comments seem to me to seriously damage Dr Phelps's professional reputation.

What he said was that she was not an expert in use of drugs to treat cholesterol.

Well, Dr Phelps is a general practitioner.

Her patients expect her to be an expert when she's providing them with medications and advice about treatment.

So the statement not only was wrong but very damaging to Dr Phelps.

FRAN KELLY: He would say that, wouldn't he?

Keith Woollard's reign as AMA president saw him at loggerheads with Dr Wooldridge too.

DR KEITH WOOLLARD: He just wouldn't talk to us, he wouldn't talk to me, he wouldn't return calls.

FRAN KELLY: But in this current debate, even the more moderate groups like the Royal College of General Practitioners - regarded as close to the Health Minister-- have come in behind the doctor.

DR PAUL HEMMING: To stand by Kerryn Phelps and to stand by her qualifications, that's the issue which we're prepared to support.

FRAN KELLY: Tensions between AMA presidents and Federal Governments are nothing new.

That's for sure.

Nor do they only operate between Liberal Health Ministers and AMA Presidents.

PAUL KEATING, FORMER PM (1993): The greedy doctors who are represented by the most rapacious union boss in the country, Bruce Sheppard.

BRUCE SHEPPARD (1993): Well, if he wants to resort to personal abuse, he can get stuffed himself.

FRAN KELLY: But this battle between Kerryn Phelps and Michael Wooldridge does seem to have got unusually personal, and Dr Wooldridge is developing a reputation for losing his cool.

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE (DECEMBER 1998): Health's done extremely well under this package, and unless you planning to have your tattoos removed or have cosmetic surgery, it won't affect you much either.

The most celebrated of the Minister's outbursts was in 1999, when he rang a constituent who'd sent him an abusive letter and got unacceptably abusive himself, to the man's wife.

It was a public, over-the-top outburst from a Federal Minister.

Kerryn Phelps says Michael Wooldridge can't take the criticism.

DR KERRYN PHELPS: The relationship with the Minister, I must say, has been difficult all along.

And I guess this is the first time it has been particularly public and you know, it doesn't make anybody happy, but I think that the important point to make is that the Minister seems to have a problem with criticism.

FRAN KELLY: The Health Minister denies the charge and refused to be drawn into this debate any further today.

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE: It's my policy to talk about Labor and what they're not going to do in health.

REPORTER: But this won't go away if she's taken legal action, it won't go away.

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE: Let's talk about policy.

REPORTER: No comment on that at all?

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE: I'll comment on policy.

REPORTER: No comment on Phelps?

DR MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE: I'll comment on policy.

But when we spoke later this afternoon with confirmation of the AMA's intention to sue, Dr Wooldridge was not so reserved.

He accused the doctor and the AMA of misrepresenting the Government's position and attempting to scare the community for their own political ends, a wage campaign of $100,000 for doctors.

The greedy doctors tag - not surprisingly - is one the AMA disputes.

DR KERRYN PHELPS: We've got GPs who are finding that their practices are no longer viable.

They're getting out of general practice or they're stopping bulk billing, changing their billing practices so they can afford to continue to pay their wages and pay their rent and pay for equipment and update their premises and provide the sort of quality care by spending time with patients that they want to be able to spend.

FRAN KELLY: It's a perennial spat and no government is likely to give the doctors what they want, an increase in the Medicare rebate from the current $23 to $45 per visit.

But the total breakdown in relations between Michael Wooldridge's office and the AMA, they're not even on speaking terms right now, is not a great strategic position for a government to be in this close to an election.

Doctors from all over are now talking about making Medicare and the GP rebate an election issue.

DR PAUL HEMMING: We're taking that message out to a number of marginal electorates over the next few months.

We'll be making sure that health and general practice in particular is an issue for the next federal election.

DR KERRYN PHELPS: Labor used a medical scare campaign to get it over the line in 1993.

John Howard won't welcome the prospect of doctors doing the same again later this year.

Ends