Reform is a must for health system: AMA

The Australian Medical ­Association has delivered a list of urgent policy demands to Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese ahead of the federal election.

AMA president Omar Khorshid. Picture: Dean Martin

In a move aimed at pushing health issues to the forefront of the election, the Australian Medical ­Association has delivered a list of urgent policy demands to Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, warning both that their promises will be “score-carded” at the end of the campaign.

In a blueprint sent to both leaders on Friday, the AMA sets out the areas of the health system it says must be reformed “for Australia to maintain its standing as a provider of world-class healthcare”.

AMA president Omar Khorshid said he was effectively giving notice to the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader of what the AMA would be campaigning for throughout the term of the new government.

“What’s different this year is we’ve just been through a pandemic where Australians have ­become very aware of the state of our public health system and just how precarious it is. But we’re in this very strange situation where neither party wants to talk about health, despite it being very high in the minds of average Australians,” he said.

Dr Khorshid said the AMA was unlikely to recommend one party over another but would be calling out lies and spin.

“So for instance, we’ve already heard from Labor that they’re going to be better on Medicare, but they’ve said absolutely nothing to give us any confidence that they’re going to be better on Medicare than the Coalition,” he said.

“We’re yet to see meaningful commitments on primary care and any willingness at all from ­either party to rethink current funding arrangements which are failing our public hospitals.”

The AMA says consecutive federal governments have failed to provide adequate funding for general practice.

“We need a new Medicare consultation item that encourages and supports GPs to spend more than 15 minutes with patients (who) need more time,” its blueprint says.

General practices should be encouraged to employ other health professionals under the same roof, including practice nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, physiotherapists, podiatrists, Aboriginal health workers and other allied health workers.

The AMA singled out wound care as a priority, with an estimated 450,000 Australians living with a chronic wound, and hard to heal wounds costing the health system about $3bn a year.

“This cost, wound-healing times, infections, long-term complications, amputations and hospitalisation, could be significantly reduced if patients could access best-practice wound care through their general practice,” it says.

While GPs will often supply dressings at no cost to patients, the costs of these are not covered by the government.

Another focus was supporting better care for people in aged care with improved incentives needed for GPs to attend aged-care centres.

Improving access to after-hours GP services was also a priority, as current Medicare arrange­ments discouraged GPs from offering in-clinic services after 6pm on weeknights and after noon on Saturdays. This meant patients were often diverted to local emergency departments at a cost to the taxpayer of about $540.

The Australian public hospital system was in crisis, the AMA said, with chronic underfunding resulting in declining performance and unnecessary suffering.

To address this, a new public hospital funding agreement was needed with the states and territories, in which the federal government removed the 6.5 per cent cap on funding growth and lifted its share of funding from 45 per cent to 50 per cent. The agreement would bind the states and territories to invest the freed-up additional 5 per cent of funding in quality improvement and expanded capacity.