President and CEO update March 2023

The North Queensland pharmacy prescribing pilot appears to have been further delayed and we continue to call on the Queensland government for complete transparency about how this dangerous experiment will be conducted.

We are also well and truly in the swing of our events schedule, with a highly successful Super Saturday of the Medical Careers Expo and Private Practice Conference on one day. Nominations for AMA Queensland leadership positions are now open and election results will be announced at our AGM on 26 May, which will be followed by the Dinner for the Profession.

Drug law reform

The Queensland Government has acted on the recommendations of our 2021 Drug Law Reform Roundtable, introducing legislation to expand the Police Drug Diversion Program (PDDP) to first-time offenders caught with minor amounts of all drugs, not just cannabis.

Our roundtable brought together medical, legal and law enforcement professionals, academics and people with lived experience of substance use. The overwhelming consensus was that substance use should be treated as a health issue, not a criminal issue, and where possible early offenders should be diverted away from the criminal system and toward support services.

This does not apply to those who manufacture or sell illicit drugs – just those who are found with a small amount for personal use.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last month introduced legislation to expand the PDDP, in a move supported by Queensland Police, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation and the Queensland Network of Alcohol and other Drug Agencies (QNADA).

This move is too important to be politicised. We are proud to have spearheaded this change. It is predicted that 17,000 people will access the program in its first year. We hope this means 17,000 fewer people will end up in more trouble with the law or with potentially life-threatening addictions.

You can read more here.

Tobacco and vaping

Last year, it was our unhappy duty to accept the Dirty Ashtray Award from the AMA and the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) for the Queensland Government’s failure to act on protecting young people from the dangers of vaping.

We wrote to the Health Minister and Attorney-General at the time, and displayed the Dirty Ashtray at Parliament House.

This month, the Queensland Government announced new laws around the licensing of nicotine sales and a parliamentary inquiry into vaping.

This is a great win for community health and comes as a result of strong AMA Queensland advocacy.

Read more here.

Payroll tax

We are continuing to advocate for GPs and private practitioners to be exempt from payroll tax. While we welcome the pause in audits of GPs until mid-2025, calling this an amnesty implies there has been wrongdoing.

GPs have been complying with tax laws and their legal and accounting advice - the Queensland Revenue Office has changed the way it interprets the law following a New South Wales tribunal decision.

We know most practices will have no option other than to pass this new tax on to patients, or close their doors.

When a patient goes to a public hospital, that service is payroll tax-exempt for a very good reason – healthcare is an essential need. Patients deserve to have access to their GPs in the same way.

This new tax is shortsighted. It will deter new practices from opening and will force existing practices to end bulk billing altogether. More patients will end up in hospital emergency departments.

We need a sensible, sustainable national solution.

Read more about our advocacy, including our correspondence with the State Treasurer and the Queensland Revenue Office.

Pharmacy prescribing

Guidelines for the North Queensland pharmacy prescribing pilot have been released and it appears the first pharmacists taking part will not complete their training until late this year.

While it is unclear whether they will be able to start autonomously prescribing before passing their course, it is another welcome delay to the start of this dangerous experiment with North Queenslanders’ health, which was originally due to start in mid-2022.

The number of conditions covered has also been cut from 23 to 17.

Unlike trials proposed in New South Wales and Victoria, where state governments have pledged to reimburse patients, pharmacists in the North Queensland trial will charge patients between $20 and $55 for consults and there are no patient subsidies from Medicare or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

It is essential the Queensland government is transparent with the community about this scheme. When the urinary tract infection (UTI) pilot began, no information was given to doctors on how to report any adverse outcomes for patients.

We are working with our colleagues nationally to fight these proposals as they emerge in every state and territory.

Council Communique

The AMA Queensland Council met on 2 March 2023. We received updates on federal campaigns on Medicare, maternity services and payroll tax, and an update on the work of the Opioid Stewardship Roundtable, the Committee of Consultant Specialists, and the International Medical Graduate Working Group.

Read the communique in full.

New CDT Chair

The Committee of Doctors in Training has a new chair – Cairns-based PGY4 Dr Elise Witter. You can read more about her here.

We’d like to thank outgoing chair, Dr Rob Nayer, for his hard work in the role, particularly around the Resident Hospital Health Check.

Private Practice Conference and Medical Careers Expo

We held our two biggest events of the year – the Medical Careers Expo and the Private Practice Conference – on a super Saturday at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

It was great to see so many members turn up to hear about the importance of cyber security and how artificial intelligence will be used to support healthcare in the future, and to network and contemplate their careers.

Our next major event is Dinner for the Profession, which is being combined with the annual general meeting on 26 May.

Register here.