Stepping up

Stepping up

There are always risks to speaking out. But with so much at stake in health at the moment, isn’t it a bigger risk if doctors say nothing? 

My husband, neurosurgeon and past AMA President, Prof Brian Owler, tells the story of starting his internship at RPA. One of the first things he did was walk into the Medical Staff Council meeting and tell some of the most eminent doctors in the country that he was leading the doctors-in-training on strike. He also tells the story of the phone ringing at his family home in Panania. It was Dr Bruce Shepherd on the line – telling Brian that he had heard about the strike and that he was giving Brian his full support. It’s probably not surprising that our Federal AMA colleagues are still able to scare Federal bureaucrats with the threat of taking an issue up to the ‘Owler factor’. 

As we have been warning for some time, a profession that has a proud history of fighting for patients, for resources, and for the system, is facing the fight of our lives. Never in my 20-year-career with the AMA have I seen such threats and such a need for advocacy. At a state and federal level, it is as if doctors are the least important part of healthcare – replaceable, unnecessary and a burden. It is part of the trashing of elites, the death of respect for knowledge and expertise.   

I find the desire to replace doctors particularly galling given there is one group who take their access to doctors – for their care and their families – very seriously. That group is politicians. And yet for their communities, substitution and any access to care is good enough. 

I am often told by doctors that they don’t want to put themselves out there when it comes to fights. They tell me “it’s different now” or “there will be reprisals”. I am here to assure everyone that it’s not different and there have always been risks for those who put themselves out there. Stepping up happens when, at some point, the harm of continuing on becomes greater than the risks of speaking out.  

In the fight we are facing, we will need to use different tools. Our traditional avenues of mainstream media are fading in importance and relevance. Stories come and go. This is why we are moving our campaigning approach to the most important asset we have – our patients – and looking for doctors to step up and tell their stories through their patients. 

Dr Aziz Iboyan is one such hero. Dr Iboyan is exactly the sort of family GP everyone would want. He practices in Hornsby and for the past few months, has been telling his patients about the payroll tax grab. He has the AMA materials in his waiting room and has used them to tell patients what payroll tax will mean for his practice. Dr Iboyan also spoke to The Australian newspaper and put a face and a voice to a story the AMA has been running for a number of years. He showed the true value of general practice in a way that 100 media releases could never do.   

 There will be many such interactions and opportunities for doctors to be advocates and heroes. It’s just a matter of stepping up.