Medicus April 2016

C O MM E N T

Making a Difference State President Dr Michael Gannon on why he wants to run for the AMA’s top job F or those who are not aware, I have thrown my hat into the ring for the position of Federal President Certainly the Turnbull Government’s private polling suggested that it was politically non-viable. I am excited by the challenge of trying to win office,

of the Australian Medical Association. My decision follows approaches by a number of colleagues at both State and Federal AMA level. I understand what people have told me – it is extremely hard to win national office from Western Australia. I am also conscious that I will need to continue to enjoy the strong support of my AMA colleagues, my clinical colleagues, my family and friends. I have decided to run because the way we manage health in this country is at a crossroads, and the AMA needs strong leadership with an appetite to engage constructively with the Commonwealth Government, whoever is in power. The Minister, the Hon. Sussan Ley, already has on her desk, or will soon have, substantial reviews into the Medical Benefits Schedule, the Private Health Insurance industry and the Primary Healthcare sector. It is essential that the profession has a strong voice in Canberra and makes itself available for constructive interaction with the government in its response to the various report recommendations. I also fully understand the financial and political reality – money is extremely tight on both a federal and state basis. The politics are complex. Some have complained that the Abbott Government pulled $57 billion out of public hospital funding. Once compensation packages for the poorest in the community were taken into account, increasing the rate of the GST to 12.5 per cent or 15 per cent was said to be economically non-viable.

The latest suggestion was to give the states back the power they gave up during the Second World War to raise income tax. Reducing federal income tax by 2 per cent and allowing the states to raise up to 2 per cent income tax would clearly not increase the size of the pie. I write before any outcomes from the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on 1 April, but I predict that this proposal will be DOA. I bring the experience of having served two years as President of the nation’s most successful state AMA. On a daily basis, I have an interaction with Paediatricians and Anaesthetists in my clinical work. On a regular basis, I have interactions with referring GPs, Pathologists and Physicians. I have fond recollections of the 18 months or so I spent as a General Practitioner in both metropolitan Perth and regional WA. My time in Bunbury, Collie, Katanning, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Paraburdoo and on Christmas Island taught me clinical independence, resilience and an undying respect for the difficult work done week in, week out by GPs. I still carry personal battle scars from working at King Edward Memorial Hospital in the middle of the Douglas Inquiry and the subsequent Medical Board inquiries that saw other doctors lose their jobs. This hardened me for the difficult decisions I make in my clinical work as an Obstetrician, and as President of the AMA. We have so much yet to do. There

to make a difference in the way health is run in Australia

Dr Michael Gannon

will be challenges to the public health initiatives that we in the AMA have fought hard to win, from those elements in society fighting against so called ‘Nanny State’ measures on tobacco and liquor reform. While none of the co-payment models were saleable to the profession or the public, and mercifully the proposed change to time limits for GP consultations were defeated, we still sit with a freeze on GP rebates, which threatens the viability of high quality practice. We have a government that is cutting capacity in the medical training pipeline at the same time that we have to find jobs for a record number of interns, before Curtin University takes its first student. We need to find high quality training positions and we need to find them soon. I see the ever-increasing squeeze on private medicine every day. The $6 million salary package for the new CEO of Medibank Private is good news for him, but surely a sign of different incentives in the for-profit Private Health Insurance sector. Sensible changes to the way we pay Continued on page 13

A P R I L 2 0 1 6 M E D I C U S 11