AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen provides an update on the past week at the national AMA.
Happy Friday to you all! It's been an absolutely massive week so let me get straight into my update.
I've been back in Canberra this week for a packed calendar of events and meetings.
I arrived just in time on Sunday to hear the government's announcement of a funding boost for women's healthcare . The government's significant MBS funding boost for long-term contraceptives is very welcome, as is funding to bring newer oral contraceptive pills and menopausal hormone therapies to the PBS. Less welcome however was the announcement of funding for more pharmacy prescribing trials for some UTI's and oral contraceptives.
The dangerous issue of autonomous pharmacy prescribing was a big topic of conversation when I met with the Northern Territory AMA Council earlier this week, and I was saddened to hear of these on the ground issues in the Territory. National AMA will continue to push back on these issues in our meetings with politicians at the federal level.
We're meeting regularly with both sides of politics and this week I caught up with both Shadow Minister for Health Sen. Anne Ruston, and Minister for Health Mark Butler to reiterate our asks ahead of the election - beyond our Modernise Medicare asks, we'd like to see reforms in the private health insurance sector, better funding arrangements for public hospitals, and a return of robust health workforce planning.
We also met with Treasury to present them with our full budget submission. You've seen some of our submission with the launch of our Modernise Medicare campaign . Stay tuned for more as we ramp up our calls for funding in hospitals, private health and public health over coming weeks and months.
On Tuesday, I was delighted to host our climate health roundtable Rising temperatures, rising risks . We gathered doctors, nurses, paramedics, academics, government decision makers and the Australian Centre for Disease Control to focus on the health impacts of heatwaves and rising temperatures. I learned a lot about practical solutions at individual and systems level. With ambulance call-outs up >18 per cent and measurable spikes in mental health presentations during heatwaves, we sure have a long way to go to keep our community safe from heat.
This week also launched our Private Health Insurance Report Card . The report card highlights the complexity of the private health sector which can lead to confusion for consumers, with the report card showing rebates for identical procedures vary greatly between insurers. Data also confirms that over the past five years, net insurance profits have risen much more sharply than benefits paid to patients. We've called on the government to mandate that insurers return at least 90 per cent of private health insurance premiums back to consumers in the form of benefits.
A highlight of the week was attending the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) Annual Forum. It was wonderful to meet with rural doctors from the RDAA and other medical groups. There's clearly a long way to go in helping build sustainable rural health communities. We have a suite of existing rural health policy but it's also a reminder that there's just under one week left to take part in our Rural Health Issues Survey . Any doctor who is working, or who has worked, in regional, remote or rural healthcare can take part in our survey.
Finally, I must reflect on the appalling video that appeared in news reports this week of healthcare workers filmed saying atrocious things about patients. This behaviour is entirely unacceptable. AMA(NSW) released a statement on this which I fully support. Everyone deserves healthcare of the highest possible standard. Healthcare spaces should be safe spaces, and racism in healthcare can never be tolerated.
Stay well, and I'll be back with an update next week.
