AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen provides an update on the past week at the national AMA.
Hello all and happy Friday!
I'm in Sydney today for a summit on psychosocial safety in health workplaces, and the launch of an action plan designed to protect the mental health of doctors and medical students. This action plan has been years in the making and flows from the Every Doctor, Every Setting Framework. The work has been led by the National Doctors Health and Wellbeing Leadership Alliance (NLA) with strong input from AMA and Drs4Drs. The action plan is practical, actionable and puts the pressure on all levels of the system - from governments to training bodies to hospitals and other employers, to put the health and safety of their workforce first.
Our AMA Medical Practice Committee (MPC) met last weekend in the National AMA offices in Canberra. It was great to join MPC for such a productive policy discussion covering a wide range of issues including management of medicine shortages, artificial intelligence, National Law reform, aged care, Scope of Practice and medicines prescribing. I am perpetually amazed by the breadth of expertise across our committees.
With big reforms like our general practice budget submission and our updated Modernise Medicare campaign on the agenda it is vital that we also keep our patients in mind. That's why I caught up with the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF) this week to talk about our reforms and how they will benefit patients, including through the provision of timely and affordable care wherever they may live in Australia, with a properly funded and distributed workforce.
Looking ahead I'll be back in Canberra this weekend for our Council of Rural Doctors meeting and our Ethics and Medico-Legal committee meeting, and I'll be sure to provide you with some updates on this in my update next week.
We are hosting our first member webinar for 2025 next Monday with LGBTIQ+ Health Australia on inclusive healthcare for LGBTQIASB+ patients. This is a really important and timely topic, and we're happy to be able to share this webinar has also been accredited for CPD points.
And what a segue this webinar provides as we gear up for the AMA's first ever participation in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardis Gras next week!
I'm looking forward to updating you again on all things happening at National AMA next Friday.
