General Practice high on Presidential agenda

The new AMA President told the MJA that general practice is a high priority during his term.

The AMA’s journal—the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA)—this week features a podcast with AMA President Professor Steve Robson. In the podcast Professor Robson spoke with MJA News and Online editor Cate Swannell about his priorities for his term in office.

He told the MJA that his top priorities coming into the role as AMA President are the Strengthening Medicare taskforce, promoting the health of healthcare professionals, addressing ambulance ramping and the logjam in hospitals, private health, the ongoing challenge of COVID, and the global health challenges of climate change.

Professor Robson said the decision to run for AMA President was not initially on his radar, but after some prodding from friends and after reflection he decided to run. He said he was also partially inspired by Dr Danielle McMullen’s decision to run as Vice-President, and to run together on a joint ticket got him “well and truly over the line”. Professor Robson said Dr McMullen is “a fantastic person, a great doctor, and great leader” and he was “delighted” that they had the chance to run together”.

He said general practice would be a key priority for him and his vice president during their term and discussed the many challenges to general practice that would need to be addressed, including the issue of not attracting enough people to the profession.

“The entire Australian health system is based around general practice. It's so fundamental to the way that healthcare is delivered in the country and if we have a situation where clever young doctors, clever new graduates don't want to do general practise, then as a country I think we've, got to turn this around as a high priority,” Professor Robson said.

On general practice, he said that the Federal Government’s funding for the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce was an important step in terms of modernising Medicare, noting the importance of a medical home for patients. He observed that much of the success in securing funding from the government was due to the advocacy of former AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid and Vice-President Dr Chris Moy ahead of the last federal election.

Professor Robson also spoke about a range of topics including the AMA’s future, the AMA’s relationships with governments, his views on various COVID responses, and the AMA’s priorities in Indigenous health including promoting and listening to the voices of Indigenous healthcare professionals.