Council communiqué - March 2023

Dear Members
The AMA Queensland Council met on 2 March 2023.  I would like to thank all Councillors for volunteering their time to represent the membership and support the advocacy work of AMA Queensland.

Nominations are upon us for AMA Queensland Board and Council. I would encourage any member who wishes to further support the profession to consider nominating.  Members have been sent an email with a unique link to the online nomination form. For more information, please contact Returning Officer Mr Andrew Vivian on (07) 3232 2900 or email nominations@pfn.com.au   

AMA Federal update
Professor Stephen Robson (President) and Dr Danielle McMullen (Vice President) updated Council on multiple issues affecting the medical profession including:

• Strengthening Medicare Taskforce
• Voluntary Patient Enrolment
• Maternity services
• Federal campaigns
  • “You deserve more”
  • “Every Doctor Every Setting”
• Payroll tax

Opiate Stewardship Roundtable
The Opioid Stewardship Working Party (OSWP) is a multidisciplinary group of health professionals from the private sector, constituted as a response to poor medical and community outcomes from prescription opioids in private hospitals. A brief update was provided to AMA Queensland Council on the progress of the roundtable with the plan to collaborate with Cairns Private Hospital.

Sustainability ideas and initiatives
The CEO advised that one of our big advocacy issues linked to the Resident Hospital Health Check survey is for the boards of the HHSs to be held accountable for staff wellbeing which is about to be legislated. The Report has been tabled and the legislation will pass which is a big step in protecting the wellness of clinical staff.

President’s report
President Dr Maria Boulton, highlighted in her report continued issues facing the profession, including the payroll tax advocacy win. AMA Queensland has been running a fierce and astute campaign, and the Queensland Premier announced at National Cabinet that Queensland GPs will be given a reprieve of 2.5 years from payroll tax.

• AMA Queensland achieves a significant step in protecting the health and wellbeing of doctors in hospitals. The Queensland Health Minister has stated she will amend the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011 making Hospitals and Health Services and their Boards responsible for staff wellbeing.
• Workforce planning needs to consider the entire of Queensland. AMA Queensland have called on Queensland Health to develop a detailed workforce map to determine current and future workforce needs.
• The North Queensland Pharmacy Prescribing Trial and AMA Queensland’s opposition continues to be one of the major areas of advocacy.  Queensland Health is determined to continue with the North Queensland Pharmacy prescribing trial and have engaged JCU to develop some guidelines. We are yet to have our questions on the UTI and North Queensland Pharmacy prescribing trials answered by Queensland Health.
• The President advised she has attended a number of events including a Gold Coast member event, a Redcliffe and Districts Medical Association event, Brisbane Local Medical Association event, and the Fraser Coast Health Conference.

Chief Executive Officer’s report
CEO Brett Dale, highlighted areas that AMA Queensland has supported, promoted and advocated for, on behalf of the medical profession in Queensland. Advocacy has been centred on:

• general practice payroll tax
• the NQ pharmacy pilot
• hospital logjam
• HHS accountability
• workforce
• drug law reform
• e-health

Q4 Scorecard is a quick guide to the AMA Queensland’s activities, achievements and advocacy efforts on behalf of Queensland members.  

Committee of General Practice (CGP)
Dr Maria Boulton on behalf of Dr Lee Jones reported that CGP met in November last year and invited the lead for the Queensland Health reform office to ensure that primary care and general practice was considered when it comes to Queensland Health. There was little consultation with GPs during COVID. 

CGP is currently lobbying to have funding to enable a GP to be placed in Queensland Health in a position to make a greater difference. Still watching the North Queensland Pharmacy pilot with JCU having been awarded the contract for training in this.  

Committee of Doctors in Training (CDT)
I would like to thank Dr Rob Nayer as outgoing Chair and the tireless work for doctors in training.

Dr Elise Witter is the incoming Chair for the Committee of Doctors in Training.  Her team plans on continuing with the strategic plan from last year including
communicating changes to the MOCA6 to junior doctors and advocating around possible changes with the prevocational framework and how that might impact career progression. 

Other areas of focus include access to training in regional and rural locations and workforce strategy to improve retention.

Committee of Consultant Specialists (CCS)
Dr Sharon Kelly gave an overview of the CCS. The committee is planning to conduct a survey of members in the same way as the Resident Hospital Health Check survey is undertaken to ascertain consultant specialist wellbeing. 

Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) terms and conditions are being reviewed in conjunction with ASMOFQ with a good deal of progress in terms of an intent to include VMOs in a modern industrial agreement as opposed to individual contracts. CCS is also looking at emergency department delays and blocks. Specialist colleagues who are not in public practice are also considered private specialists, particularly around Medicare rebates.

International Medical Graduate (IMG) Working Group 
Dr Emilia Dauway, IMG Representative, provided an update on the IMG Working Group. 

Three key themes were identified which were:

1. orientation
2. workplace issues
3. training issues

AMA Queensland will collaborate with Doctors’ Health in Queensland by sharing the deidentified results from the survey.

Councillor reports  

Thank you to the following Councillors who provided reports. 

• Dr Stephanie Dawson-Smith, Greater Brisbane Area Representative
• Dr Vikas Moudgil, Greater Brisbane Area Representative
• Dr Kees Nydam, North Coast Representative
• Dr Fiona Raciti, General Practice Representative
• Dr Lisa Fraser, General Practice Representative
• Dr Hashim Abdeen, Doctor in Training Representative
• A/Prof Geoff Hawson, Senior Active Craft Group Representative
• Dr Venu Bhamidi, Gold Coast Representative
• Dr Kimberley Bondeson, Greater Brisbane Area Representative

AMA Queensland Council is your representative body. Please feel free to contact me or any of your representative Councillors on any issues that you would like raised at Council.

Contact Council members

Regards,

Dr Nicholas Yim
Chair, AMA Queensland Council 
Vice President AMA Queensland