Australian Medical Association

MJA media release - Evidence shows no difference in professional satisfaction between metropolitan and rural GPs, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Matthew McGrail from the Gippsland Medical School and the School of Rural Health at Monash University, VIC, and his co-authors conducted a study investigating whether the level of professional satisfaction of Australian general practitioners varied according to community size and location.

The authors used data from 3906 GPs who participated in the first wave of the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) study conducted between June and November 2008.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today congratulated the Government and the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists on a mutually satisfactory outcome from their negotiations over changes to the Medicare rebate for cataract surgery.

Dr Pesce said that today’s resolution was, above all, a win for patients and a great relief for the thousands of people around the country who had faced uncertainty over their sight-saving operations.

“The successful outcome over this issue confirms the AMA view that there must be expert clinical input at the beginning of the process of making changes to Medicare rebates, not after the event,” Dr Pesce said.

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.

Fears that rural Australia has been abandoned in the health debate were raised by doctors today at a meeting of the Federal Council of the Australian Medical Association in Canberra.

Chair of the AMA rural medicine Committee, Dr David Rivett, reported that rural doctors had been ‘bitterly disappointed’ by the recommendations of the government’s National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission.

AMA/RDAA Rural Workforce Rescue Package Fact Sheet

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

AMA Rural Health Issues Survey

AMA Submission to the Review of the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) Classification

The AMA submission to the Australian Medical Council on the Recognition of Rural and Remote Medicine.

This is a joint statement by the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA), National Rural Health Network (NRHN), Doctors in Rural and Remote Training Association (DIRRTA), AMA Council of Doctors-in-Training (AMACDT) and the General Practice Registrars' Association (GPRA) opposing the introduction of geographic restrictions on provider numbers.