Australian Medical Association

On 3 March 2010, the Commonwealth Government announced its National Health and Hospitals Network policy – the first phase of its health reform package. The first phase focuses on arrangements for the funding and governance for public hospitals and primary care.

The Prime Minister also foreshadowed in his speech further initiatives in the future concerning:

• the inadequacy of hospital bed numbers, including specific problems in emergency departments, elective surgery and sub-acute care;
• the expansion of primary care;
• the undersupply of doctors, nurses and other health professionals;
• the inadequacy of electronic health records across the system; and
• preventative health care, aged care, mental health and dental health services.

In November 2008 the Council of Australian Governments' agreed to introduce a nationally-consistent approach to activity-based funding for public hospital services to allow comparisons of efficiency across public hospitals.

Subsequently, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to examine and report on the relative performance of the public and private hospital systems. In June 2009, the Productivity Commission released a paper seeking information and feedback on a range of issues including treatment costs, including out-of-pocket patient expenses and rates of fully-informed financial consent, rates of hospital-acquired infections and other relevant performance indicators.

Below are the two submissions the AMA made to the Productivity Commission on the Performance of public and private hospital systems. The AMA submissions also address the Commission's term of reference on informed financial consent.

The AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2009 is an analysis of the most up-to-date national data on public hospital performance plus more recent feedback from doctors working in public hospitals in all States and Territories.

It shows that Australia’s public hospitals continue to be seriously under-funded and are struggling to meet growing public demand for their services.

People still experience excessive waits in emergency departments and excessive waits for admission to a hospital bed. Waiting times for elective surgery have been getting longer.

The growing number of Australians at risk of serious chronic diseases from obesity, smoking and excess alcohol use is a major health challenge facing Australia. This AMA Policy Brief, Preventing Obesity, Smoking and Excess Alcohol Use, summarises some key measures that the AMA believes should be given priority in a National Preventative Health Strategy, including support for the preventative role of doctors and implementation of a number of targeted community-level measures.

The AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, has written to the Minister for Health and Ageing to seek assurances that there will be sufficient clinical training positions for interns and specialist trainees in the public sector.

AMA's views on rural health care delivery to the Department of Health and Ageing.

The AMA highlights that the major shortfall in current rural health programs is the overall lack of funding.

The AMA also calls for the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification system that is used by the department to target many of its rural workforce programs to be retained and enhanced.

AMA Position Statement: Clinical support time for public hospital doctors - 2009

The AMA defines clinical support time as protected time for duties that are not directly related to individual patient care. Clinical support duties encompass most aspects of the teaching, continuing professional development, clinical governance, administration and research activities undertaken by clinicians in the public health sector.

The purpose of this position statement is to specify a minimum benchmark of remunerated time for clinical support duties for senior and junior clinicians. It includes a comprehensive list of the roles and responsibilities that constitute clinical support time to assist with developing job descriptions and work schedules.

The AMA's response to Matter number AM 2008/13.

The AMA has made a submission in response to the draft national awards and also appeared before AIRC hearings in Sydney. The AMA has argued that the new awards may result in cost increases for some private medical practices as they prescribe, in some cases, more generous working conditions than those contained in existing awards. The AMA submission called on the AIRC to bring working conditions in the proposed awards back into line with current awards so that medical practices are not hit with increases in costs.

AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2008

An AMA analysis of Australia's public hospital system.

AMA Submission to the Maternity Services Review - 2008

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

The attached submission has been prepared by the AMA Council of Doctors in Training (AMACDT)

Health and the 2008-09 Federal Budget

AMA Work-life flexibility survey report

AMA submission to DoHA regarding proposed secondary legislation to support the Health Insurance Amendment (Inappropriate and Prohibited Practices and Other Measures) Act 2007.

The AMA sees the 2008-09 Federal Budget as an opportunity for the incoming Commonwealth Government to reclaim its responsibility for health care and to strengthen the partnerships with those who share responsibility more broadly.

AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2007

Submission to Senate Community Affairs Committee regarding Patient Assisted Travel Schemes May 2007

The AMA 2007-08 Federal Health Budget analysis was prepared by Access Economics and puts Budget health spending into context with total Budget outlays and previous Health Budgets. It also examines any likely longer-term impacts. Key observations of the Access Economics reports include: health spending is about constant with a share of total outlays; more than half the new measures are remedial in character and cannot be sold as 'new' money; high marks for realigning health spending priorities to better meet the needs of an ageing population suffering more chronic disease; high marks for a number of new spending initiatives that focus on areas with real opportunities to improve health outcomes.

AMA Position Statement: Social Determinants of Health and the Prevention of Health Inequities - 2007

AMA Position Statement: Quality and Safety in Public Hospitals - 2006

AMA Position Statement: Public Health - 2006

A discussion paper outlining initiatives to support general practice services to Residential Aged Care Facilities.

AMA Position Statement: General Practice and Public Hospital Integration Position Statement - 2006

AMA Position Statement Employment of Medical Students in Hospitals - 2006

The good, the bad, and the ugly of the 2006-07 Federal Budget.

AMA Position Statement: Workplace Facilities and Accommodation for Hospital Doctors - 2006

This position statement notes the centrality of sound nutrition to good health and recommends measures that the government and food industry can take to improve the nutritional opportunities and habits of Australians, particularly children.

Information for members who currently work for DVA on a contract basis or are contemplating doing so through the current tendering process.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) engages a number of doctors as contract medical advisers. They work in DVA offices and interact with DVA staff and processes on a daily basis, but they are engaged as contractors, not employees. DVA has reviewed its arrangements for health advisers (includes medical, dental and allied health professionals) and has gone to tender for new contracts.