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.

Transcript:  AMA President,  Dr Andrew Pesce, with Leon Delaney, Radio 2SM

Monday       15 February 2010

Subjects:    Coalition plan for public hospital management boards

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the Coalition’s policy announcement for local community-controlled management boards for major public hospitals in NSW and Queensland is a step in the right direction, but more detail on how the policy would roll out nationally is needed.

Dr Pesce said the AMA has for some time been calling for more clinical input to public hospital management at the local level.

“The Coalition’s proposal is heading in the right direction in terms of clinical engagement in decision making,” Dr Pesce said.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA welcomes reports that the Coalition will make health funding, including public hospital funding and governance, a key policy battleground at the next Federal election.

It is reported that the Coalition policy includes direct Commonwealth financing of new local hospital boards, leaving the States out of the process.

Dr Pesce said that having both major parties committed to dramatic health reform would benefit patients and communities desperate for better access to quality health services.

“There is not yet enough detail of the Coalition’s plan for the AMA to support or reject it, but there are elements that are consistent with our reform proposals,” Dr Pesce said.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, today said it was vital that Australia had strong, highly performing, public and private hospital systems, after the Productivity Commission released a draft discussion document comparing the two systems.

Dr Pesce said the Commission had highlighted the immense difficulty and statistical challenges of comparing the performance and costs of public and private hospitals.   

“Hospital systems are complex but we need both public and private hospitals working well to support our Australian health system,” Dr Pesce said.

“Unfortunately the AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2009, which was released yesterday, shows that public hospitals are under-funded and failing to meet key performance targets, and growing demand for their services.

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.

The AMA is supporting calls from State health ministers for the Federal Government to focus on funding health infrastructure as part of a proposed economic stimulus package.

AMA Vice President, Dr Gary Speck, said the clear message to all governments was: “There is no better investment than health”.

AMA Public Hospital Report Card 2008

An AMA analysis of Australia's public hospital system.

AMA Submission to the Maternity Services Review - 2008