02 — Private Practice

Consumers need access to transparent, valuable policies that meet their healthcare needs.

With the viability of private hospitals under threat, the regulatory landscape in PHI more confusing than ever, and an ageing population, we need a Private Health System Authority to ensure transparency, accountability and sustainability in the sector.

The balance of private and public care is critical to the health of Australians

03 - Scope of Practice

The Government’s “Unleashing the healthcare workforce” scope of practice review has implications far beyond primary care. Its recommendations have the potential to change the very nature of our healthcare system.

We must ensure that the unique breadth and depth of doctor scope of practice is articulated and protected.

We must ensure patients have improved understanding of who they are seeing for care and their skills/qualifications

We must boost the collaboration between disciplines so that patients are getting the right care and we work in teams, but those teams must be coordinated.

04 — Public Hospitals

Our public hospitals have never been busier - planned surgery waitlists are the longest on record, and ED wait times are the longest in a decade. The hidden waitlist is eye-watering. Patients are suffering and those of us looking after them are distressed by the helplessness of it all.

The NHRA is being negotiated now. Now is the time to ensure a fit-for-purpose funding arrangement that increases the Commonwealth share but also ensures States are incentivised to improve outcomes, efficiencies and to boost productivity.

05 — Doctors in Training

Our Council of Doctors in training (CDT) is often the moral compass of our organisation - they lead work on wellbeing and culture, with an eye to the future of our profession. We need to support our next generation of doctors to train in an environment that is safe, affordable and meets their needs.

Employment reform for GP trainees to ensure the sustainability of the future workforce is critical

Robust health workforce data, strategy and management is essential to ensuring we are training the right doctors for the future. Governments need to do better

06 - Rural Medicine

Rural and regional medicine is the canary in our coalmine. But they showed signs of struggle many years ago and yet disparaties persist. As

There are some encouraging signs with an uptick in training as rural generalists. We must support this and ensure the specialty thrives alongside rural general practice and other specialties.

07 - Workforce

Across geographies, practice environments and specialties, we’re all feeling the strain of workforce shortages.

Many areas rely on an internationally trained workforce to provide excellent care and yet recent recommendations aiming to streamline access, risk profession-led quality assurance.

Our colleges must remain central to training, education, standards and accreditation

We must support our international colleagues to reduce the bureaucracy before arrival, and the racism and exploitation after they arrive.

We must invest in GP registrars in particular to ensure we attract more doctors to this specialty

We need accurate workforce data to ensure we are training the right number of local grads, in the right places and the right specialties to meet future need

08 - Doctors Wellbeing

Amid the many challenges facing our profession, many of our colleagues are suffering. We need systemic improvements to improve the culture and systems causing harm. We need supports for our colleagues to thrive not just as clinicians but as people with varied skills and interests both inside and outside the clinic environment. We need to improve the ongoing gendered bias in our profession. We need to stamp out racism. We need to be more inclusive of our colleagues with disabilities.

There is much we need to do - as the AMA, we can provide a welcoming home base and community. We are the only organisation that represents doctors of all specialties and all stages of training. We need to lead by example and be a place of safety, support, security, inspiration and connection for our colleagues