What business is it of yours?

As your professional association, the AMA is always ready and willing to get involved in issues that impact doctors and patients.

In a recent, rather terse, exchange with a Government organisation, the person on the other end of the Zoom meeting said to me, “What business is it of yours to interfere in [Dr X’s] case? What gives you the right to tell us what we should be doing?”

It was this moment that I wished the meeting had been face-to-face so I could draw myself up to my full 5’2” height.  

With all the dignity I could muster I said, “It’s my business because it matters to my doctors and anything that matters to my doctors is the AMA’s business.”

This is why, in any given year, we deal with seemingly disparate issues – from tunnels to border closures, climate change to rates of pay for administrative staff, Medically Supervised Injecting Centres to services and resources for hospitals. If it affects our members, then it’s our business.

We sincerely hope for 2021 that less of our business will focus on COVID and that we will be returning to a focus on our health system. COVID has provided the opportunity for people to understand the value of good health and good healthcare. It has allowed walls to be built and walls to be taken down. It has exposed some of the weaknesses of a delicately balanced and interconnected system that exists between general practice, private specialist practice, private and public hospitals.

We know what happens when this balance is upset – most notably at Blacktown Hospital in recent weeks. The hospital is under pressure from growing patient demand and declining utilisation of private health insurance, particularly in areas such as obstetrics. And while private health insurers have developed some models which they believe will be more attractive to patients, those models reduce the autonomy and potentially the satisfaction of doctors.

In one positive piece of news for the end of 2020, we were pleased to see SIRA recognise the contribution of doctors and index workers compensation fees to reflect the AMA List of Medical Services and Fees. The decision followed many months of lobbying and significant work by State and Federal AMA to highlight the appropriateness of the AMA Fees List and the contribution of doctors to the care of injured workers. 

We don’t expect this battle to go away – blaming doctors for poor return to work rates is simply too easy to do. However, we will continue to stand up for the work of doctors in caring for patients injured at work – just as we will continue to stand up for our doctors on all the issues that matter most to our members.