AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen provides members with an update of events from the past week.
It's been an extremely big week for us here at the AMA with the release of the long-awaited Covid-19 report, the release of our annual Public Health Report Card Mental Health Edition , meetings and for me, the everyday business of general practice.
The voluminous Covid-19 Response Inquiry Report covers a lot of ground and includes some key recommendations which we will be pushing governments to see-through. Two of the big items - as I see them - are the catch-up strategy recommendation to co-ordinate across all levels of government to invest in a plan to reduce elective surgery backlogs made worse by the pandemic, and the establishment of an Australian for Centre for Disease Control (CDC ). The pandemic brought the logjam in our hospitals into sharp focus, and a whole of government strategy to ease the pressure on our health system requires tackling the elective backlog as well as investing in preventive healthcare and hospital funding reform.
We also know that a better prepared health system will also ensure that the welfare of medical practitioners is much better supported and protected when the next pandemic hits.
Hospitals are also in focus in our Public Hospital Report Card Mental Health Edition . I was joined by Dr Sarah Whitelaw in Canberra to launch our report at Parliament House highlighting how the lack of capacity in Australia's health system is failing patients suffering from poor mental health. The latest figures show we are treating more patients, sicker patients, with fewer beds. The maths doesn't stack up and not surprisingly the length of time spent in ED for patients presenting with mental health-related conditions was the highest on record with some patients spending more than 23 hours, in ED before receiving a hospital bed.
You can read more about the Covid-19 report, the CDC announcement and our report card below.
I represent AMA members on the IV fluid shortage taskforce and can report that shortages continue to be an issue, with the hurricane in the USA impacting expected supplies. Supply is expected to remain constrained for the rest of the year. Your state health departments and local hospital executives should be keeping you up-to-date with what measures you can take to help conserve supplies. I will also provide updates as they arise.
This week I met with Senator David Pocock to discuss a wide range of important issues including the importance of a CDC, the pipeline of solutions we need to address GP shortages and the importance of fit-for-purpose regulation in private healthcare.
Lastly, As AMA President I am regularly called upon to represent the AMA across Australia's media outlets to discuss pressing health issues. This week I spoke with Channel 10's The Project about the need to involve women in decisions regarding medicines in pregnancy. I rose early to talk to ABC News Breakfast about the scourge of vaping and the small improvements in reducing the number of children vaping in schools, and I updated the Medical Republic on our continuing concerns with the dangerous experiments in pharmacy UTI trials.
