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ANNUAL REPORT of the AUSTRALIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, TASMANIA, LTD. ABN (11 009 484 931) 31 December 2019 TASMANIA P 2 AMA TASMANIA | ANNUAL REPORT | 31 December 2019 CONTENTS President Report CEO Report Division Reports » Northern » Southern » Northwest Treasurer Report Directors Report Financial Statements Past Presidents Honorary Medical Secretaries Fellows Honorary Members Roll Awards » Presidents » Students P 3 partnering to plan and give effect to sustainable health services that reduced care fragmentation by supporting General Practice at the centre of patient care. PRESIDENT This highly productive working relationship has been supported by the outstanding work of our In April 2019, I took over the CEO Lara Giddings, our Communications, and media expert Nadine Cove, along with Jacqui Quinn and Presidency from Dr John Sharon Stevenson who ably provide membership, finance, and executive support at AMA House. The Davis following a term as AMA expertise of Board members Dr Annette Douglas, Mr Scott Fletcher and Dr Helen McArdle, State Tasmania Vice President, a role Council Chair Annette Barratt and the Tasmanian State Councillors have ensured effective policy which John then moved into. I development and membership representation. believe our reciprocal terms as In this context, my term as President has spanned what might be considered “interesting times”. President and Vice President Commencing with major public hospital budget, staffing, patient access, and governance challenges, has produced a consistent it concluded amid a once in a century global pandemic. and productive approach to Nonetheless, throughout this, we have as an AMA team ensured the Association was able to grow delivering on AMA policy and in its vital role in serving the professional needs of medical practitioners throughout the State. We strategy over the past three have provided advocacy and support - advocacy for sustainable health outcomes for our patients and years. community, and advocacy for doctors so they can do their job effectively, with confidence that the resources they require for delivering clinical and preventative care are available. P 4 AMA TASMANIA | ANNUAL REPORT | 31 December 2019 The pre-COVID landscape Coming into the role in April 2019, I sought to focus on six key areas of health policy: ✚ Sustainable and effective health governance. ✚ Sustainable healthcare facilities and infrastructure. ✚ Sustainable healthcare workforce. ✚ Sustainable health funding based on activity and community needs ✚ Accessible, high-quality health services for all Tasmanians. ✚ Addressing the Social Determinants of Health. public hospital services should come directly from within the Department of Health and In the first month of my term, we brought to then not through a separate THS Executive. Health Minister Ferguson’s attention the concerns We advocated as a matter of urgency for AMA Tasmania had with the Tasmanian Health establishment of two Area Health Networks Service. At the time issues of hospital service (one Southern and one Northern) to manage capacity, Emergency Department overcrowding hospitals and community health services in and underfunding of public hospitals were regular each geographic area, each to be managed negative news stories. We were saying that the by a Chief Executive Officer and an Executive system was not at risk of breaking, but that it was team authorised to deliver integrated acute broken. The risk of losing senior and junior doctors hospital and community health services in was real, General Practitioners despaired at the their area with reporting lines directly to the impact overcrowding in Emergency Departments, Department of Health leadership. long waiting times for elective surgery and access to clinics were having on their patients. For the I am pleased to advise improvements in line with first time, in June 2019, AMA Tasmania provided AMA advocacy occurred across a number of these questions to the government and opposition parties areas, particularly concerning health governance on the issues we believed needed to be addressed and budget. There have also been improvements by the government in the Budget Estimates process. in consultation with the medical profession, We took this approach to promote openness and particularly with the direction taken by the new transparency around health service planning and Health Minister Sarah Courtney and DoH Secretary funding. While the answers to our questions were Katherine Morgan-Wicks. not all forthcoming, the strategy did stimulate much While the AMA inevitably spent much of 2019 in useful discussion and debate. advocacy for improving the acute care system, we The AMA also identified several key areas of focus determinedly focused on ensuring General Practice of advocacy with the Health Minister: remained at the centre of patient care. During 2019 we also worked with the University of Tasmania ✚ The Health Budget - while health spending and successfully advocated for the reinstitution of had been increasing, it is nowhere near a specific identity for the MBBS program through enough to adequately fund the growing reinvigoration of the Tasmanian School of Medicine demand pressures on the health system. as an entity to represent the aspirations of our ✚ Consultation - the need for improved medical students and their degree. government consultation with AMA Tasmania and our General Practitioners. The issues of euthanasia also remerged in mid- 2019 in the form of discussions to reintroduce ✚ A Health Strategy for the State - the time a Private Members Bill in support of “voluntary had come for a renewed comprehensive assisted dying”. The AMA firmly took the position health plan to be developed for the State that that legalisation of euthanasia was a decision for encompassed the acute and primary health the community and legislature, not for the medical sectors. profession to arbitrate, notwithstanding this, we ✚ The Structure of the THS - while some have held unwaveringly to our ethical position improvements in line with AMA advocacy had that no registered medical practitioner can be a already occurred with the abolition of the prescriber or provider of euthanasia if it were to be Governing Council and state-wide CEO role, legalised. the AMA believed oversight of Tasmania’s P 5 with proven COVID-19 until non-infectious. Access to adequate supplies of appropriate PPE was a significant issue for clinicians throughout the COVID-19 crisis. During the first phase of the pandemic, front line clinicians experienced profound limitations to PPE availability and support in its use, due to stockpile, supply chain and training limitations. We put to government that to be safe, appropriate PPE must be available for healthcare workers, which included reasonable availability of N95 masks that are fit tested and not just fit checked. Our General Practitioners initially struggled through the early stages of COVID-19 with issues of PPE supply and bulk billing arrangements. During my term, we have promoted the importance Following intense lobbying by Federal AMA, we of improving the Social Determinants of Health saw the introduction of telehealth items and in Tasmania, particularly through the adoption of the re-introduction of gap payments for most an AMA Tasmania Position Statement promoting consultations and procedures. the importance of the “-1 to 5 years of life” as the Consequently, most of our GPs and non-GP key time to leverage feto-maternal health and the specialists are now much better placed than at the foundations of learning and literacy as mechanisms beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Our focus coming for breaking intergenerational cycles of ill-health out of the crisis has been to advocate for keeping and disadvantage. Our adoption of this Position the new telehealth item numbers while seeking Statement provided opportunities to advocate to ensure that there are requirements to prevent publicly and politically as well as for me to join the inappropriate use of the telehealth funding model. Commissioner for Children and Young People’s Expert Advisory Council on Wellbeing. Over recent weeks I have worked with the State Government and Premier’s office to develop The 2019 AMA Parliamentary Dinner held Terms of Reference for an independent inquiry in November successfully brought together into Tasmania’s response to COVID-19, with a focus parliamentarian and leaders from the breadth on the North West Regional Hospital outbreak. of our profession. During this convivial evening This inquiry will be crucial if we are to be better of conversation and sharing of ideas, we were prepared for future outbreaks of COVID-19 or a able to promote the basis a shared vision for similar pandemic. The AMA has likewise advocated health: - politicians, community and the profession for the establishment of an Ombudsman for the partnering to plan and give effect to sustainable COVID-19 Public Health Emergency to guard against health services that reduced care fragmentation by the negative consequences that can arise from supporting General Practice at the centre of patient the protracted use of extreme emergency powers. care. No powers should run unaudited or without a counterbalance across many weeks and months. COVID-19 crisis The AMA’s mission is to provide support and advocacy for Tasmanian doctors so they can AMA Tasmania has been at the forefront of sustainably improve the health outcomes of their advocacy, working at times hand in hand with the patients and the Tasmanian community. I believe