AMAQ’s Election Priorities as medics go without basics

Poor hospital infrastructure is leaving medics without basic facilities and hampering patient care, the state’s peak medical body warns.

Poor hospital infrastructure is leaving medics without basic facilities and hampering patient care, the state’s peak medical body claims.

The Australian Medical Association Queensland’s Election Priorities document, given to The Courier Mail, reveals that offices, workstations, vital IT systems and adjunct transport infrastructure are often insufficient.

New hospital builds and expansions delivered in the next four years by government must be designed with patient care as a priority, the AMAQ reports.

The doctors also call for sufficient high-quality, safe and affordable staff accommodation.

The state Labor government has committed to an ambitious $9bn plan to build three new hospitals and upgrade 11 in the next four years.

The infrastructure call from the AMAQ comes as doctors identify 17 priority areas for reforms for all political parties to improve the state’s health service.

Fixing the continuing workforce crisis is top of the list.

“Queensland’s health workforce crisis has deepened on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the worldwide shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare practitioners,” AMAQ president Nick Yim said.

“This has led to our own workforce shortages, elective surgery delays, ambulance ramping and growing financial pressures on general practice.

“These problems have been building for decades and while some are out of our control, there are levers we can pull to start fixing things.

President of the AMA Queensland Dr Nick Yim. Picture: Josh Woning

“We offer our Election Priorities as a blueprint for all parties. We encourage whoever forms government after October 26 to commit to these reforms to improve the health of every Queenslander.

“Not only do we have chronic shortages of doctors in rural, remote and First Nations communities, but even large regional and some metropolitan areas are struggling to attract and retain staff.”

Dr Yim said there needs to be better workforce incentives, more doctor involvement in leadership decisions, and sufficient training places for junior doctors and international medical graduates (IMGs).

“We must rebuild our regional specialist workforce so patients do not have to travel so far for treatment and pregnant families can have their babies at their local hospital” the president said.

The document highlights payroll tax as an ongoing concern for private medical practices.

“We call on all parties to implement an exemption for all private practices, consistent with arrangements for public and most private hospitals,” Dr Yim said.

“We are in a cost-of-living crisis and now is not the time to make seeing a GP more expensive for patients, many of whom are older with more chronic disease. We should be investing in preventive care, not taxing it.”

The Election Priorities report also recommends a joint Queensland Health/AMA Queensland PhD research project to identify tasks undertaken by doctors that can be safely performed by other health professionals to improve patient flow and care by having doctors spend maximal time working at the top of their scope.