President and CEO update August 2022

We have established an Opioid Stewardship Roundtable to achieve best practice in opioid management for acute pain, and are about to launch a survey of international medical graduates to determine how we can best meet the needs of this valuable medical cohort.

We will also be taking part in the Queensland Government’s healthcare workforce summit on 27 September, while continuing to advocate for a mental health and wellbeing summit for a workforce that has been left overwhelmed and fatigued by COVID.

You can read more about our work in the Council Communique.

PPE supply extended
GPs and other healthcare workers will continue to have access to federally funded personal protective equipment (PPE) for a further three months as a result of advocacy by AMA Queensland.

The Department of Health and Aged Care has advised that the following measures will remain in place until 31 December 2022:

• Aged, primary and disability care, and First Nations health services will continue to have supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), treatments, rapid antigen tests and other supplies from the National Medical Stockpile.
• Increased funding will be available for the Aged Care Support Program Grant so that residential aged care providers continue to be supported with the costs of managing COVID-19.
• New MBS items and rebates will be available from 1 October 2022 for testing SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.
• The department will continue providing in-reach testing in aged care homes and rapid antigen tests to frontline healthcare workers and those most vulnerable to severe disease.
• The majority of GP Respiratory Clinics (GPRCs) will continue, as will MBS items for telehealth sessions to prescribe lifesaving oral antiviral treatments, and rebates for face-to-face GP visits for COVID positive patients.

Vaping
A Cancer Council survey shows Queenslanders share AMA Queensland’s concerns about vaping, with almost 70 per cent saying they think e-cigarettes are highly addictive, and 80 per cent think they should be banned in pubs, restaurants and on public transport.

AMA President Dr Maria Boulton reluctantly accepted the AMA-ACOSH (Australian Council on Smoking and Health) Dirty Ashtray Award at the AMA National Conference in July for the Queensland Government’s failure to protect children from the dangers of vaping.

The dubious award was put on display at Cancer Council Queensland’s health expo at Parliament House on 1 September.

MPs shared their experiences. Member for Southport, Rob Molhoek (LNP) said there is a vaping shop just down the road from a key high school in his electorate, while Member for Mirani, Steve Andrew (One Nation), said two children in his electorate had been hospitalised recently because they were poisoned by vaping fluid.

Despite laws prohibiting the sale of illegal cigarettes to children, Queensland does not enforce the existing regulations, or require tobacco product retailers to be licensed.

We have written to the Minister for Health and the Attorney-General, calling them to urgently rectify these failures before Queensland children become the next generation of smokers and suffer the associated catastrophic health results.
Children and non-smokers must be protected not just from exposure to smoke but also to behaviours that normalise smoking.

Read more - Dirty Ashtray Award
Read more - Queensland must do better on vaping

North Queensland pharmacy experiment
We continue to advocate against the dangerous North Queensland pharmacy prescribing experiment and brought it to national attention through ABC’s flagship current affairs program, 7.30.

You can watch it on ABC iView or on the ABC’s YouTube channel. 

We still do not know when the pilot, which was supposed to start in June, will commence, which towns and communities are taking part, which conditions it will cover, and if any pharmacists have undertaken the 120 hours of online training.

Read more.

Resident Hospital Health Check
The seventh annual survey of doctors in training has now closed.

The results will be collated to rate hospitals on how well they address issues including working conditions, overtime, training and culture.

It is critical to understand where hospitals are doing well and where there is room for improvement, to ensure that we support the growth of our medical workforce.

The survey is run by AMA Queensland and our Committee of Doctors in Training in collaboration with ASMOFQ the Doctors’ Union.

Results will be released later this year. Read more.