AMA Queensland working for you

It’s great to see so many people here for this very informative seminar.

Strangely enough, they don’t teach us business in medical school, yet so many doctors are small business people.

So before we get into the presentations from our corporate partners and our workplace relations team, I’d like to give you an update on what AMA Queensland has been doing for you on the policy and advocacy front this year.

MEDICARE

First, to Medicare.

We welcome the central focus on general practice in the Federal Budget last month, with change to indexation of Medicare rebates and the tripling of bulk billing incentives.

It is clear the government has finally understood the crucial importance of general practice both for patients, and to reduce costs in our public hospitals.

More detail is needed, however, on many of the reforms, especially MyMedicare, how it will work and how its funding will be distributed.

It is also clear that the messaging around the incentive increase has been confusing for patients and frustrating for practice staff.

Trebling the incentive won’t reverse the decline in bulk billing as claimed, particularly in cities.

It may help practices that were about to stop bulk billing the most vulnerable - for a time - and those in rural and remote areas, but it is well short of what is needed for long-term change.

However, the federal government has certainly been happy to let people believe that there’s no longer any reason for GPs NOT to bulk bill.

We are working on some materials for practices to explain the change to patients:

• To explain that the change doesn’t take effect until November
• That it only applies to children and Commonwealth concession card holders
• That it doesn’t apply to all Medicare services
• And that it’s not the patient rebate that has been trebled.

STATE BUDGET

The Queensland Budget will be handed down on 13 June.

We have been advocating hard for key priorities including maternity services, general practice and public hospital investment.

We are also calling for measures to improve mental health, palliative care, digital healthcare and VAD.

We are confident that the government has heard our concerns and look forward to some positive outcomes in coming weeks.

WORKFORCE AND NEW HEALTH MINISTER

We have a new state Health Minister - the Honourable Shannon Fentiman.

Minister Fentiman attended our Dinner for the Profession last Friday night and outlined her plans for her new role.

She also listened to doctors at the dinner about what she needs to do.

She has shown she understands urgent action must be taken on several issues, particularly maternity services and workforce.

She understands our concerns about payroll tax.

She also understands our concerns about Queensland Health’s proposed Workforce Plan.

We are continuing to stress the need for a holistic approach to solving our workforce crisis, taking all areas of healthcare into account, not just public hospitals.

Our workforce includes GPs, specialists, nurses, allied health, pharmacists, physios, private hospitals and aged and disability care, and they must be considered.

A Plan that does not cover all health workers will not succeed, especially in our regional, rural and remote areas.

Likewise, we welcome the financial incentives for international and interstate doctors and healthcare workers to move to regional Queensland.

However, we would like to see this expanded to private practitioners, and we would like to see some recognition of those who are already in the regions.

PHARMACY PRESCRIBING

Another area of work is fighting against the rollout of pharmacy prescribing across the nation, dressed up as ‘trials’ when they are actually pilots.

We have seen actual harms to women during the urinary tract infection (UTI) prescribing pilot, with pharmacists misdiagnosing STDs, pregnancies and pre-cancerous conditions as simple UTIs.

The UTI trial is of course the basis for the much wider North Queensland Pharmacy Prescribing Pilot.

We have managed to delay the start of the North Queensland trial by at least 18 months, and reduce the number of conditions covered from 23 to 17.

But we are continuing to call for these dangerous trials to be abandoned.

CONCLUSION

So this is how AMA Queensland has been working for you.

And I encourage you to consider how you can join us in our work.

In the coming weeks, AMA Queensland will be seeking expressions of interest for a Townsville-based Far North Area Representative to fill a casual vacancy on Council, and I encourage you to consider applying for this leadership position.

In conclusion, I love being a GP – I think it is the best specialty of them all.

And behind every great GP and private specialist is an even greater practice manager.

I hope today’s seminar gives you tips and advice to help keep your practices working smoothly, and I look forward to hearing about the local issues you are facing a bit later on this morning.