President and CEO update July 2021
Professor Chris Perry OAM, AMA Queensland President and Dr Brett Dale, CEO
July ended with a lockdown, the fourth for Queensland this year. While necessary, lockdowns cause significant social, health and economic impacts. Now more than ever, we must chart a course out of COVID-19 and continue to encourage community vaccinations and to follow all public health directives to curb the spread of this deadly virus. In July, we also issued our updated Pay Rates Summary for 2021, made our final Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) submission, visited Rockhampton and reported on our results for the second quarter of 2021.
COVID-19
New vaccine guidelines
ATAGI has updated their vaccination advice for children in high risk groups aged between 12 to 15 years old. Children with either specific medical conditions, who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, or live in a remote community will be able to receive a Pfizer- COVID-19 vaccine. This follows the advice for pregnant women to be offered the Pfizer vaccine throughout their pregnancy. This is welcome news, however, demand for Pfizer far outstrips demand and we are urgently lobbying for more vaccines.
AstraZeneca in COVID-19 hotspots
Queensland’s status as a declared COVID-19 hotspot means that people under 60 are advised to have any vaccine available to them, including AstraZeneca. The timeframe between the two shots is also recommended to reduce from 12 to 8 weeks. The threat of contracting COVID-19, far outweighs the small risks associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and younger people are urged to get vaccinated as soon as they can. We agree with this change in advice that is in response to our community risk profile. The current outbreak and death toll in New South Wales is a grim reminder of how incredibly dangerous this virus is and the need to take every precaution we can.
Win for GP PPE
We have been consistently lobbying for GPs to have greater supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We welcome the Federal Government’s announcement that Queensland GPs in declared hotspots can access PPE from the National Medical Stockpile through their local Public Health Network (PHN). This includes surgical masks, N95 masks, gloves, gowns and goggles. We are here to support our members and advocate for the medical profession in Queensland and are pleased to see this supply of PPE for our GPs. Read more.
Telehealth Medicare items
Unfortunately, as of 1 July, the Federal Government removed many of the initial and successful telehealth by telephone Medicare items, including long consultations and left only a handful for GPs and the community to access. This is despite around 95 per cent of telehealth consults being provided by telephone with no clinical indicators that it is inappropriate or delivering worse outcomes.
These changes could not have happened at a worse time, with half the country in lockdown, but the AMA was able to lobby the Federal Government to rescind some of these measures. Patients in declared COVID-19 hotspots, including South East Queensland until 8 August, can talk with their GPs for longer on the telephone following a decision by the government to ease the 1 July restrictions.
General practices in declared COVID-19 hotspots can use specific MBS item numbers to provide telehealth services to people living in those locations. The two new MBS items, 92746 for GPs and 92747 for other medical practitioners, enable the provision of longer telephone consultations, lasting 20 minutes or more, to people who are in a Commonwealth-declared COVID-19 hotspot or required to isolate or quarantine because of a public health order. The new MBS items are exempt from the ‘usual medical practitioner’ rule that requires a patient to have received a face-to-face consultation from the medical practitioner or the practice in the last year.
We will continue to advocate for permanent Medicare-supported telehealth and ensure the Federal Government delivers on an equitable model now planned for 2022.
Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation
We have continued to represent members’ views in our response to Health and Environment Committee who are overseeing the review of the draft VAD legislation. Our key feedback included the:
- addition of the word ‘incurable’ to the eligibility criteria;
- ability for doctors to conscientiously object;
- changes to federal law governing telehealth to allow its use for VAD;
- self-administration of VAD substances should not be the default option but that patient choice should be the key determinant;
- requests to access VAD by patients remain enduring and that Advanced Health Directives are respected; and
- referral to a psychiatrist to only occur if deemed necessary by the coordinating medical practitioner.
The Queensland Parliament will have a conscience vote on VAD in September.
New Pay Summary
The Panel of the Fair Work Commission decided to increase the minimum Modern Award rates of pay by 2.5 per cent. For the health care sector, this increase took effect from 1 July 2021 and impacts employees covered by industry Modern Awards, such as the Nurses Award 2010 and the Health Professional and Support Services Award 2020. Our Workplace Relations Team has updated our Pay Rates Summary for 2021-22, which is available to all members. Read more.
Government advocacy
We met with the executive team of Queensland Health to discuss ways to address the following issues.
- Lack of progress and investment in Indigenous Health.
- Provide input for the Health Policy Directive on ramping from the Emergency Roundtable.
- Raised concerns about Hervey Bay Hospital and workforce issues.
- Put forward a list of unresolved policy issues including:
- pill testing;
- mandatory reporting;
- pain management workforce;
- task substitution;
- palliative care;
- maternity services; and
- Indigenous surgical access program.
Queensland Health is a key stakeholder for our members and we continue to work closely with the department to advance the issues of the medical profession and public health for the state.
We also had a constructive meeting with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners to understand the proposed transition to college-led training. Further meetings will be scheduled with the other states on this potential change that will affect many of our members.
CHO changing of the guard
We congratulate Dr Jeannette Young, Queensland’s Chief Health Officer (CHO), on her appointment as the next Governor of Queensland. Dr Young has shouldered the responsibility for the health of more than five million Queenslanders for the past 15 years, and while the COVID-era decisions made by Dr Young have not been universally popular, there is no doubt she has played a pivotal role in keeping the state’s population safe from the ravages of COVID-19. Her successor has a big task ahead of them but there is certainly an opportunity to chart a new course for key health challenges. We hope the next CHO tackles issues such as the climate change health emergency, reducing the carbon footprint of the health sector by 2040, fluoridation, and most importantly, tackling the greatest health issue facing our community with the exponential rise in mental health presentations. Read Professor Chris Perry’s Opinion Piece CHO:Changing of the guard
Around the State
AMA Queensland visited Rockhampton in July meeting with members in the hospitals as well as attending the Local Medical Association Dinner and talking with the media on key issues for the region. Read our press release issued while visiting the region AMA puts Capricorn health issues in the spotlight.
L to R: 1. Prof Perry with journalist Paul Culliver, 2. Talking with Dr Sahand Tahmasebi our doctor in training representative at the Rockhampton Hospital, 3. Speaking to the Rockhampton LMA.
Scorecard
The AMA Queensland Scorecard outlines our key achievements and results delivered in the second quarter of 2021. It highlights our extensive work to advance the medical profession in Queensland and our support for doctors in the delivery of exemplary health care for the community. Read more.