President and CEO Update March 2022
March has been a month of taking stock and rebuilding for many members and their communities following the devastating floods, at a time when our hospitals continue to struggle with the Omicron wave and subsequent workforce shortages due to quarantined staff. The AMA’s Public Hospital Report Card highlighted the stress our hospitals are under. Meanwhile, we are continuing to campaign against the dangerous North Queensland pharmacy trial, and preparing for the State Budget.
#StopNQPharmacyTrial
Thanks to all members and non-members alike who took part in our survey this month. More than 1,300 responses were received in just over a week, even more than the voluntary assisted dying survey in late 2020.
The full results will be unveiled over coming weeks, but the response was overwhelming – 96 per cent of Queensland doctors think the North Queensland pharmacy trial is dangerous to patients and should not go ahead.
Approximately one in five doctors reported treating at least one patient for serious complications that were either missed or misdiagnosed under the urinary tract infection (UTI) prescribing trial, which the Queensland Government says is the basis for the North Queensland pilot.
Complications included antibiotic allergies, missed diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections, pregnancies, menopause, pre-cancerous conditions, and delayed treatment leading to kidney infections.
These figures are truly shocking and show the urgent need for the government to immediately halt this trial given the risks to patient safety and absence of any true evaluation of health outcomes.
You can read more about the UTI prescribing trial here. Visit our campaign page to find resources including draft letters to your local MP to get this dangerous trial stopped.
North Queensland Doctors’ Guild
Our colleagues and members in the newly-formed North Queensland Doctors’ Guild have successfully lobbied for a Federal Government investigation into their Primary Health Network (PHN) following its involvement in the pharmacy trial.
With AMA Queensland assistance, the Doctors’ Guild wrote to federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt this month with their concerns about the Northern Queensland PHN’s conflict of interest in appointing its chair – a prominent local pharmacist – as its representative on the steering committee overseeing the trial.
Despite Minister Hunt being in the last weeks of his role ahead of his retirement at the upcoming Federal Election and the Commonwealth preparing to go into caretaker mode, the federal Department of Health announced an investigation within days of receiving the letter.
It has also confirmed the NQ prescribing trial is inconsistent with Commonwealth medicines policy.
Public Hospital Report Card
This month has seen an increased focus on our stressed public hospital system, with soaring numbers of code yellows as thousands of staff are unable to attend work due to COVID infection or exposure.
We are working with our federal counterparts to call for more sustainable funding for our public hospitals, which were already under pressure before the Omicron wave hit our state.
The latest AMA Public Hospital Report Card showed that one in three Queenslanders who needed urgent emergency department (ED) care in 2020-21 were not seen within the recommended 30 minutes, on a par with the national average but well below the New South Wales rate of 75 per cent.
Queenslanders also waited longer than other Australians for elective surgery, with a median 42 days wait compared to Victoria’s 28 days.
This is no reflection on our hardworking doctors, nurses and other health care staff. It shows the need for a better, more sustainable funding model for our public hospitals.
Patients and doctors don’t care which side of politics or which level of government provides the funding. They just know that our hospitals need to be resourced to deliver the care that all Queenslanders deserve.
We are calling on the Federal Government to restore its share of public hospital funding to 50 per cent, from the current 45 per cent – but we don’t want the State Government to use any federal increase as an excuse to cut its own level of funding.
Our Ramping Roundtable released a five-point action plan late last year. You can read it here.
Read the Public Hospital Report Card and visit the AMA’s Clear the Hospital Logjam website to see how you can get involved in making public hospital funding a Federal Election campaign issue.
Federal Budget
We are disappointed that the Federal Budget missed the opportunity for urgent and significant investment across the four pillars of preventive health, primary care, public hospitals, and private healthcare.
The Medicare and hospital funding amounts to little more than usual recurrent spending and planned growth, not the new injection of funds our health system desperately needs.
While the Health portfolio has been spared funding cuts, the Government’s focus on cost of living has overlooked quality of life, particularly for the thousands of Australians languishing on hospital waiting lists.
The current funding model for our health system is not fit for purpose, with its focus on the number of procedures that hospitals provide, not the need to keep people out of hospital through preventive and community care.
While we are pleased to see the Budget finally acknowledge the 10-Year Plan for Primary Care, we can see no plan for how its implementation will be funded.
Medicare rebates have not kept pace with cost of living and GPs can’t afford to keep bulk-billing patients.
You can read more here.
Flood Assistance
The AMA Queensland Foundation is building on its support for flood-affected Queenslanders by offering a potential $50,000 in assistance grants.
The Foundation is already supporting patients suffering hardship due the recent Queensland floods and is now looking to extend the grants and funding available, to also help doctors and practices recover.
The AMA Queensland Foundation will match donations, dollar for dollar, up to the value of $25,000, in a campaign that runs until 30 April.
The fundraiser will open soon so visit the AMA Queensland Foundation website to make a donation and contact amaqfoundation@amaq.com for more information.
Vaccine Booster
ATAGI has recommended a fourth ‘winter’ COVID-19 vaccine dose for vulnerable groups. AMA Queensland urges those in priority groups to take up the fourth booster and anyone not yet boosted to get their third dose as COVID cases rise.
Like other vaccines including the flu shot and whooping cough/pertussis, it has been shown COVID-19 vaccines lose their effectiveness over time.
It’s very common in vaccinations to need more than one shot to build strong immunity as the protection can wear off over time and viruses change and mutate.
Similar to how we have the flu shot every year, we need to be comfortable with receiving booster doses for COVID-19 and we’ll continue to get updated advice on this from ATAGI.
Booster rates are as low as 40 per cent among some younger Queensland cohorts which is a major concern given the rising COVID cases in the state.
It’s also vital that parents get their children vaccinated given the outbreaks we are seeing at schools.
QScript
AMA Queensland has been vocal in passing on members’ concerns about the QScript platform and implementation.
The QScript Management Unit has now committed to providing six-monthly reports on the implementation, including current status, usage and activity.
It is also conducting a survey into user's experience of the system. This will assist the unit to identify potential improvements to QScript and how the unit can better support health practitioners to use the system.
We encourage all members to complete the survey. QScript post-implementation survey
Medical Careers Expo
Our Careers Expo on 26 March was a huge success and we thank all attendees, sponsors and guest speakers. Thanks to the industry professionals who donated their time and knowledge in the career panel session. We hope those who joined us on the day walked away with insights, information and motivation to take their next career step with confidence.
Special mention to our sponsors: Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, ForHealth, Doctors' Health in Queensland, James Cook University, The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, Defence Force Recruiting Brisbane, Mater, UQ Rural Clinical School, RACGP, Uniting Care, Fraser Coast Regional Council, St Vincent's Private Hospital Toowoomba, RANZCP, Rockhampton HHS
You can view the photos from the event here.
We look forward to delivering this event again in 2023.