AMA Tasmania

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Current News:

Annual General Meeting this Saturday

24th April 2013: After a light lunch at 1.30pm we will be holding Annual General Meeting at 2.00pm, Saturday 27^thApril 2013 Tailrace Centre, 1 Waterfront Drive Riverside, Launceston.

Join us at the Annual General Meeting of AMA Tasmania, lunch will be supplied and our guest speaker is Dr Fiona Joske, a member of the Medical Board of Australia, the body responsible for registration of the medical profession.  Dr Joske will speak about the board and address the contentious issue of Revalidation. 

Dr Joske is a general practitioner and a principal in a rural group practice in Longford, Tasmania, where she has worked since 1999. Her previous practice was at Smithton in North West Tasmania. The current practice is a teaching practice which hosts medical students, nursing students, GP registrars, and pre-vocational Resident Medical Officers. The practice also provides an orientation program for international medical graduates. Dr Joske was appointed to the Medical Board of Australia in August 2009 and was a member of the Medical Council of Tasmania from 2000. She is now also a member of the Tasmanian Board of the Medical Board of Australia.

Dr Joske has been a National Examination Coordinator for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and is currently a College examiner. Dr Joske’s past positions include member of the Medical Schools Accreditation Committee of the Australian Medical Council, Chair of General Practice Workforce Tasmania, Medical Advisor to Rural Workforce Support Tasmania, Chair of the Tasmania Faculty of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, GP Consultant to the Health Insurance Commission and Council Member of the University of Tasmania. 

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AMA does not support Voluntary Assisted Dying

21st March 2013: AMA Tasmania does not support the Premiers proposal for Voluntary Assisted Dying. The AMA is of the view that there should be no change in legislation. On the 15th of March the AMA lodged a submission with the Premier and the leader of the Greens Mr Nick McKim opposing the concept. We are most concerned that the proposed legislation is constructed in such a way that it does not establish that the Tasmanian community wants or accepts euthanasia, nor does it call for comment on the concept of euthanasia but simply on the mode of administering euthanasia, said the AMA President Dr John Davis. 

This proposal will, put simply, allow doctors to legally and intentionally kill their terminally ill patients on request”, he said. Dr Davis went on, “This is a tenet that fundamentally changes the core of the principle of the doctor patient relationship”. The AMA notes that previous wide ranging Tasmanian Parliamentary inquiries in 1998 and 2009 have not recommended proceeding with such legislation and numerous international Parliamentary Inquires have rejected such proposals as posing a very real danger to the most vulnerable in our community. This proposal does nothing to suggest otherwise. 

Dr Davis said, “Indeed in in those jurisdictions where euthanasia is legal there is considerable evidence to support the argument that the most vulnerable in our community are indeed exposed to risk”. “Lastly, it is our opinion that the research on which this proposal bases many of your arguments is both highly selective and deficient” said Dr Davis. Click here for more information.

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Looking after the Mental Health of Doctors - World first survey

The AMA welcomes the launch this week of the beyondblue National Mental Health Survey of Doctors and Medical Students. The survey is being sent to 50,000 doctors and medical students across the country, including all of those in rural and regional Australia, as part of a coordinated effort to assess the stresses and pressures experienced by Australia’s medical professionals and the impact they may have on their mental health. AMA Vice President, Professor Geoffrey Dobb, said today that the AMA strongly supports the survey and is encouraging all Australian doctors and medical students to participate in what is the first survey of its kind anywhere in the world.  

“The AMA has long played a leadership role in raising awareness among doctors and medical students about the need to look after their own health and wellbeing,” Professor Dobb said. “There is evidence that doctors are at greater risk of mental illness and stress-related problems, and depression and anxiety are common in the medical profession. 

“The suicide rate among doctors is higher than in the general population, and we know that medical students experience higher rates of depression and stress. “This survey will play an important role in raising awareness across the medical profession and the broader community of issues associated with the mental health of medical students and doctors.  

“It will also inform the development of interventions for medical students and doctors to address the prevalence of depression and anxiety in their ranks to improve mental health in the profession. “We all understand that healthy doctors equals healthy patients.  

“The AMA commends beyondblue on this important initiative,” Professor Dobb said.

Beyond Blue Click here

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After Hours Care Tender

6th February 2013: On Wednesday the 30^th January the President of AMA in Tasmania Dr John Davis met with the CEO of Tasmanian Medicare Local Mr Phil Edmondson to discuss the after-hours care tender. The meeting was arranged to discuss concerns within the AMA regarding the future of the GP Assist (Tasmania) model of after-hours care in light of the tender recently let by the Tasmanian Medicare Local for the provision of a Tasmanian telephone-based after-hours primary medical advice and GP support service.

The tender let by the TML for the provision of a telephone-based after-hours primary medical advice and GP support line will replace the existing GP Assist service currently available to general practitioners across Tasmania. The new service will have both a nurse and doctor telephone triage and advice component as is currently available through GP Assist (Tasmania). The new service will be Tasmanian based. The GPs providing telephone advice in the new service will be Tasmanian based.

The significant change between the existing service and the new service is that the nurse triage component of the new service will be provided by nurses working for the National Health Call Centre Network (NHCCN), health direct Australia. The health direct Australia nurses use an algorithmic triage process like that used by the current service provider. It is hoped that the NHCCN nurses providing telephone triage under the new arrangements will be Tasmanian based, but the location of the nurse triage component in Tasmania is subject to negotiation between GPA (as their current employer) and Medibank Health Solutions as operator of health direct Australia.  That decision will not and cannot be made by TML.

The logic for moving to this nurse triage model is not simply cost but that the Australian government and the majority of states including Tasmania, as the owners of the NHCCN, are as a matter of policy looking for consistency of nurse triage advice, 24 hours a day across the nation. Within the new service there will be the capacity for GPs and local health providers (nurses in residential aged care facilities, nurses in community hospitals, pharmacists, pathology providers etc.) to contact and speak directly with the Tasmanian based GP providing telephone care within the new service. Tenderers who submit a compliant tender can also submit a non-compliant tender.

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Australia's first Red Tape Commissioner

Smart Company E-Magazine: 18th Jan 2013 - Australia’s first red tape commissioner has been appointed in Victoria and says he wants to meet with as many small businesses as possible, as he starts compiling a list of problem areas to target and bring to the state’s government’s attention.

John Lloyd, who previously worked as the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner and deputy secretary for the Department of Workplace Relations, has told SmartCompany he wants to get rid of as many red tape burdens as possible. “The manifestation of red tape is the difficulty in getting government approvals, the time that it takes to organise between departments, and the difficulties in getting things handled,” Lloyd says.

“If these are happening, it really suggests the departments in question need to lift their game.”

Lloyd’s appointment has also been welcomed by Opposition Small Business Spokesman Bruce Billson, who told SmartCompany he supports the addition of a commissioner exclusively for red tape. “Successful red tape reduction requires strong leadership and not just in-house bureaucratic gestures.” “In principle I think the idea of appointing a red-tape commissioner has merit and I’m sure the other states will be watching the performance of the commissioner to see if it can work elsewhere.”

Click here for more information small business commissioner and here for the full article Smart Company.

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Energy Drinks and Alcohol don't mix

3rd January 2013: The AMA today warned people against taking up the dangerous habit of mixing alcohol and highly caffeinated energy drinks in an effort to extend their ‘party time’. AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said that mixing alcohol and energy drinks has become popular among young people and adults because they want to celebrate for longer periods of time.

“It can lead people to consume excessive amounts of alcohol and excessive amounts of caffeine, both of which can be harmful on their own, but potentially lethal when consumed together.

“The combination reduces the perception of intoxication and allows people to drink for longer periods of time. “It is a trend that has become popular among crowds at music festivals and many people will try it this holiday period.

Click here for the full article.

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