President’s update: Challenges and new opportunities

Happy Friday! Can you believe we are already in December? 

This is the last edition of Rounds for the year and before we hit the end-of-year rush (as if we haven’t already), I want to thank you for your ongoing support and all you do for patients and our profession.

This week has been something of a mixed bag. It’s been challenging with some very disappointing changes at the AMA, but there’s also been some exciting ones.

I’m so excited to welcome the AMA ACT into the federal fold. They voted unanimously on Wednesday night to become a branch, joining NT and Tasmania. With a streamlined structure now across our smallest states and territories, we look forward to continuing and improving the brilliant local advocacy and member services these teams offer. 

But the news this week wasn’t all good. As you would have seen from my update earlier this week, sadly AMA Queensland has decided to go it alone and leave the federated AMA. It’s important that all members continue to be fully represented federally and we are exploring avenues to allow Queensland doctors to continue their federal AMA membership.

The power of the AMA resides in our unity of purpose: state and territory AMAs advocate on local issues and we represent them nationally on policies such as Medicare, private health insurance and aged care, which are issues bigger than any one state or territory. 

As an Ipswich GP and AMA Queensland member, I know first-hand the significance of our role in presenting doctors’ views right across Australia to federal government, which shapes, controls, funds and dictates what much of our work looks like and how we do it.

But never fear, this disappointment has not stopped us on getting on with our job of advocating on your behalf. This week I met with A/Prof Fei Sim, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, to progress collaboration with pharmacists. That might sound strange, as we fight hard against autonomous pharmacy prescribing. But there are a multitude of ways doctors and pharmacists could work more effectively together. One of those is by boosting non-dispensing pharmacists in general practice. This is longstanding policy in the AMA to bring more pharmacists into our practices and work together to improve medication safety and care coordination.

This week we are also getting into a bit of Christmas spirit with our end-of-year networking event for business partners and stakeholders. This is an opportunity to thank our partners across health by underlining the value of partnerships, reinforcing a sense of shared success and signalling our priorities for next year.

I’ll round out the week still in Canberra for our AMA Council of General Practice. This two-day, in person meeting is critical as we work to progress primary care reforms that strengthen patient access and continuity of care in general practice. 

General practice is the backbone of Australia’s healthcare system with more than 22 million Australians seeing a GP each year. The AMA is fighting for a Modernised Medicare that supports patients having access for complex needs, and a primary care system that values specialist GP care.

It's been one of those weeks with ups and downs, however, our focus has not shifted. We are committed to getting on with the job of putting your needs front and centre before government on things that matter.

Keep your eyes out for our special edition 2025 wrap-up next week, but until then, take care.