More than 30 medical peaks have congregated in the nation’s capital to set the advocacy agenda for the months to come.
Doctors of all stripes have descended on Canberra today for the AMA’s national meeting of medical colleges, associations and societies, with scope of practice reform topping the agenda.
According to association president Dr Danielle McMullen, the other topics up for discussion between the 33 peak organisations in attendance include doctor wellbeing, regulation and what’s next for Australian healthcare.
Representatives from both AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia were present, as well as Health Minister Mark Butler.
Dr McMullen told The Medical Republic that changes to allied health scope of practice would be felt across the medical industry.
“This isn’t an issue just limited to general practice and community care,” she said.
“Right across our medical specialties, people are interested in making sure that patient care and the quality of that care is front of mind for decision-makers.
“[We are] concerned about access being seen as the only metric.”
A question that is often left unanswered, she said, is what that access is meant to lead to.
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“That access needs to be to high quality medical care and in coordinated care teams,” Dr McMullen said.
“There were parallels from right across our specialties – we’ve heard from emergency medicine, from obstetrics and gynaecology, ophthalmology and general practice, who are all … facing scope issues.”
Although the final report from Professor Mark Cormack’s review into scope of practice rules in Australia was released last year to much fanfare, Canberra has yet to act on many of its recommendations.
Dr McMullen said she would continue urging the government to take a “cautious approach” in its response.
Ms Sue Dawson, who is leading the independent review into the unnecessary and complex processes within AHPRA, also appeared on a panel at the meeting.
Ms Dawson’s proposed reforms included strengthening the notification process to better support timeliness, transparency and procedural fairness.
The final report from the consultation has not been publicly released, but AHPRA has already come out in support of many of the proposed changes, which it said were “in lock step” with its current reform agenda.
“We’ll hear from [Ms Dawson] and put some questions to the panel about how the regulators are planning to reform and really put the wellbeing of practitioners under review into their ethos,” Dr McMullen said.
