Medivac costs to hamper panel, Peter Dutton says

Doctors warn a new volunteer panel to fast-track refugee transfers to Australia could be unworkable amid concerns over costs.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

Doctors have warned that a new volunteer medical panel to fast-track refugee transfers to Australia could be unworkable without further clarity from the government, ahead of Labor’s contentious medivac bill receiving royal assent as early as today.

Health groups have raised concerns with the Morrison government questioning whether panel members will have their travel costs covered and have time to work full-time in private practice.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton yesterday also warned that refugee transferees would ­divert hospital resources away from Australians on waiting lists.

“They are going to go into the health network,” Mr Dutton said. “I don’t want to see Australians who are in waiting lines at public hospitals kicked off those waiting lines because people off Nauru and Manus are now going to ­access those health services.’’

The government has not yet appointed key members of the ­independent health advice panel who will have the final say on who comes to Australia on medical grounds.

Immigration Minister David Coleman is examining whether the panel can function at limited capacity without the representatives nominated by specific health groups set out in the medivac legislation passed last month by Labor, Greens and independent MPs.

Under the medivac bill, the ­independent medical panel must include the surgeon-general of the Australian Border Force as well as the federal Chief Medical Officer.

In addition, at least one panel member must be nominated by the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

The Australian has confirmed that Mr Coleman has received nominations from all three medical groups but has not made the appointments to the panel.

AMA president Tony Bartone told The Australian: “We have ­selected our nominees and written to the department with their names and we look forward to working with the government on getting this panel up and running.”

Under the legislation, panel members may need to “travel to regional processing countries to conduct monitoring and assessment activities” and “assess ­adequacy of health services and support provided to transitory persons in regional processing countries”.

They may also need to “monitor a transitory person’s health on an ongoing basis for as long as the transitory person remains in a ­regional processing country”.

The RACP warned last month that it wanted clarification from the government “on a number of key outstanding questions regarding the operation of the panel, ­including travel arrangements, medico-legal arrangements, important governance issues and medical practice issues”.

The Australian understands that the government is examining whether the panel can operate in the short term without the ­participation of nominees proposed by the AMA, RANZCP and RACP.

The government is concerned because each of these groups have called for asylum-seekers and refugees to be moved out of ­detention in offshore centres.

Dr Bartone wrote to Scott Morrison in September, saying that “asylum-seeker children and their families on Nauru must be removed” while the RACP has called for an “end to held immigration detention”.

The RANZCP has said that ­detention centres “should be ­located in onshore areas with good access to high-quality mental health, trauma and physical health services and facilities”.

Legal advice received by the government says that, if the advice panel cannot be constituted, the government must assume it has automatically approved refugee medical transfers to Australia.

The government is still working through challenges posed by last-minute amendments, clarifying that panel members will not be remunerated for their time, a change agreed to by Labor, Greens and independent MPs to avoid a constitutional challenge to the legislation.

Under the legislation, the ­secretary of the Home Affairs ­Department “must provide appropriate assistance to the panel for the purpose of ensuring the panel performs its functions and exercises its powers”.

The panel will become the final decision-maker on who comes to Australia on medical grounds.