Australian Medical Association

Doctors, particularly General Practitioners, provide preventative care to their patients on a regular basis. Doctors also coordinate the preventative care that patients need from other health care professionals, and promote health and prevention in the broader community. The AMA position statement "Doctors and Preventative Care 2010" describe these important aspects of a doctor's role.

The AMA's Position Statement on Doctors' Relationships with Industry 2010 provides guidance for doctors on maintaining ethical relationships with the pharmaceutical industry, medical device and technology industry, and health care product and service suppliers in general ('industry'). While collaboration between doctors and industry contributes beneficially to the quality of health care that Australians receive, doctors have a responsibility to ensure that their relationships with industry are consistent with their duties to their patients and towards society at large.

The AMA's Position Statement on Medical Professionalism 2010 serves to identify the major values of the profession and highlight the profession's commitment, and indeed responsibility, to put patients first, regardless of the challenges posed by a dynamic health care and broader social environment.

The AMA supports high quality primary health care services that are convenient for patients and enhance patient access.

Incorporating pharmacy services into general practice would improve patient care, and medication management in particular, by allowing GPs to lead a team of co-located health professionals, including pharmacists, in providing collaborative health care to local patients.

A General Practice Pharmacy could be established within or next to an existing general practice and there should be the option for doctor owned pharmacies as an integral part of providing patients with convenient access to primary care services. Pharmacists would still retain the professional and legal responsibility for dispensing medicines, independent of the GP.

To enable these services to be established, the current restrictions on pharmacy location and ownership need to be lifted.

The AMA Ethics and Medico Legal Committee is developing guidelines for members on managing potential conflicts of interest that may arise from pharmacy ownership by the medical profession.

The Position Statement on Human Genetic Issues 1998. Revised 2000. Revised 20021 outlines the AMA's views on diverse issues such as genetic privacy and non-discrimination, performance of medical genetic testing, patents,cloning, and eugenics. In 2010, paragraph 6.7 of the position statement was slightly amended to align it with recent changes to privacy legislation that allow health practitioners to use or disclose patients' genetic information, whether or not they give consent, in circumstances where there is reasonable belief that doing so is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of their genetic relatives.

Welcome to Australian Medicine - the national news magazine of the Australian Medical Association.

We offer a unique opportunity to communicate with doctors across every medical specialty and in 2010 will continue to offer highly competitive advertising rates for our clients. Australian Medicine has a readership of over 28 000 and is a great channel to use to send a direct message to our doctors.

Essential information about the AMA, its work and its people.

The Australian Medical Council (AMC) is developing a national code of professional conduct for doctors entitled Good Medical Practice: A Code of Conduct for Doctors in Australia (previously entitled Good Medical Practice: A Draft Code of Professional Conduct). The Code is intended to supersede existing State and Territory medical board professional conduct codes. The AMC intends to recommend that it be adopted by the new national medical board. The AMC's Final Consultation Draft of April 2009 reflects the feedback they received in response to the previous public consultation draft of August 2008.

The AMA's submission is attached.

Whilst the AMA considers the Final Consultation Draft to be a major improvement on the earlier version, the AMA has highlighted a few sections that require further amendment, including the sections on conscientious objection and on conflicts of interest. The AMA has also emphasised the need for the release of the Code to be accompanied by relevant public and profession based education campaigns and to be subject to a regular 3-5 year review cycle.

In March 2009, the AMA adopted the World Medical Association's Declaration of Seoul on Professional Autonomy and Clinical Independence. The medical profession is committed to ensuring patients' interests come first.  This declaration advocates that doctors have the freedom to exercise their professional judgement in the care and treatment of their patients without undue influence by outside parties or individuals.

The AMA Joint Submission highlights concerns that the proposed arrangements will impose additional requirements on registrants to provide information, including workforce data, to the relevant board as a condition of registration, and extend existing arrangements for information sharing about registered medical practitioners between various government agencies.

AMA Joint Submission on Good Medical Practice: A Draft Code of Professional Conduct (August 2008)

AMA Position Statement: Ethical Considerations for Medical Practitioners in Public Health Emergencies in Australia - 2008

AMA Position Statement: Unique Healthcare Identifiers - 2008

AMA Position Statement on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising - 2007

AMA comments on the Review of Australian Privacy Law, Discussion Paper 72

AMA Position Statement on the Role of the Medical Practitioner in End of Life Care - 2007

AMA Position Statement on Advertising and Public Endorsement - 2004. Editorially Revised 2006

The AMA Code of Ethics articulates and promotes a body of ethical principles to guide doctors' conduct in their relationships with patients, colleagues and society. This Code has grown out of other similar ethical codes stretching back into history including the Hippocratic Oath.

AMA Position Statement: Endorsement by the AMA of Products and Services - 1989. Revised 2006

Position Statement: The AMA adopted the World Medical Association's Declaration of Geneva.

Position Statement: The AMA adopted the World Medical Association's Declaration of Tokyo.

A 2004 Newspoll found that 90% of Australians support organ donation. Currently only around 45% of families in Australia will donate the organs and tissues of their deceased loved one if unaware of the deceased's decision. Saving a Life is easier than you think!

The NSW Supreme Court's June 2003 decision of PD v Dr Nicholas Harvey and Another reminds doctors in clinical practice of the importance of effective patient-doctor communication and duty of care to third parties.

AMA Position Statement: Patient Recall - 1992

Your Privacy Questions Answered

Legislative Provisions for Medical Practitioner Advertising

AMA Position Statement: Guidelines for Doctors on Providing Patient Access to Medical Records - 1997. Revised 2002

AMA Position Statement: Fetal Welfare and the Law - 1996

AMA Position Statement: Access to Medical Records by Doctors Who Are Not Treating the Patients Concerned - 2002

Who owns my medical records the doctor or patient? Who owns my medical records the doctor or patient? The Privacy Act gives patients a general right of access to information held about them. It does not necessarily give a patient the right of ownership of that information. As a general rule the doctor who holds patient information owns and controls it. Doctors retain their legal rights in relation to copyright of their own work. Access to this information is a separate issue.