President’s report

Dr Michelle Atchison

It is difficult to believe that in a few short weeks, my term as President of AMA(SA) will be over. Asked to reflect on my two-year term for the article in this issue has triggered memories of challenges and crises, but also camaraderie and companionship, that I am sure I share with other doctors fortunate enough to have held this position before me.

It is impossible to know, though, whether the strange warps and wefts in time that seem to have occurred recently are unique to this period, because of the pandemic, or are a constant feature of this role, or just being adults. Time doesn’t ‘pass’, it gallops. It flees. We never have enough of it.

So, I am doing what I can to maximise the time I have as president before the annual general meeting (apologies in advance to the Secretariat staff!). For example, as I write this, we have in a few days our regular meeting with Health Minister Chris Picton. The agenda includes COVID (of course), new Women’s and Children’s Hospital planning and existing hospital accreditation issues, and patient access to the benefits promised by the Termination of Pregnancy Act (passed two years ago last month).

On 6 March, CEO Dr Samantha Mead and I met the Shadow Minister for Regional Health Services, for Preventative Health, and for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, the Hon. Penny Pratt, to warn of the ramifications of any legislation that would increase access to vaping products, as proposed by One Nation MLC Sarah Game’s Bill to ‘regulate’ supply.

On the evening of 6 March, we staged a webinar to address members’ concerns that are mounting because of the payroll tax reforms occurring in the eastern states. As detailed on page 14, Federal AMA Vice President Dr Danielle McMullen and policy director Warwick Hough, and AMA Queensland President Dr Maria Boulton, kindly accepted our invitations to share their experiences of the campaigns in Queensland and NSW to counter political moves to impose payroll tax on private practitioners. We don’t know what may come in South Australia, but the interstate experience of this new tax shows we are better to be prepared.

On 2 March, we appeared before the Select Committee on Health Services to discuss the concerns outlined in our submission to the Committee of November

2022, and to present our perspective on the multi-faceted crisis in our health system. Among the issues discussed were the impacts of COVID and Long COVID on patients and the health sector, now and in the years to come; ramping and hospital logjams, and the effect of insufficient services at every stage of the patient ‘journey’ on overflowing emergency departments; planning for and accreditation of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital; and our concerns about any move to enable pharmacists to prescribe medication for urinary tract infections.

We discussed the work here and across the country to find solutions to the crisis in general practice, from overhauling Medicare to attracting more junior doctors to general practice. As we explained to the Select Committee, the ‘single employer model’ being piloted in the Riverland is one program that can contribute to solving the recruitment problem; a meeting with our peers in Tasmania, where it is about to be implemented, about how it could be rolled out across the state, was also in the diary this week.

And so it continues. For members, for patients, for communities – the AMA is here and our advocacy goes on.

As I prepare to vacate the presidency, I thank my predecessor, Dr Chris Moy, for his stewardship and for continuing to give so much time to AMA(SA) while passionately advocating for us all,inlcuding as federal Vice President. Dr John Williams has been a pillar of support as AMA(SA) Vice President, including and especially in leading AMA(SA) work on the rural doctors’ contracts and the single employer model. AMA(SA) Council Chair Dr Peter Subramaniam, Committee of General Practice Chair Dr Bridget Sawyer and Councillors have devoted time, expertise and guidance to help me.

I have been grateful for the open and valuable channels of communicaion with Minister Picton and his predecessor, Stephen Wade. Within SA Health, Dr Emily Kirkpatrick, Dr Michael Cusack and Helen Chalmers have answered my requests for statistics and sometimes sensitive analysis of what’s going on with COVID, ramping and other systemic challenges. And the small team we have in our Secretariat has always had my back. Thank you all.