About the campaign

Welcome to our GP web site.

The site is a central platform in the AMA’s national campaign to protect and promote the interests of GPs and their patients in the health reform debate.

The site is a two way portal.

It provides a platform for you to register your concerns and aspirations for the reform process and have these heard, loud and clear, by the policy makers.

It also provides a central source of information on the reform debate. A one-stop-shop that will help busy GPs stay abreast of developments.

First and foremost though – this is your site. Get involved and help us ensure the architects of primary health care reform in this country hear your voice, your passion for medicine and your patients.

Protecting the interests of our patients will demand a resonant and unified voice from GPs working at the front line of primary healthcare.

Dr Steve Hambleton
AMA Vice President

New

Support Family Doctors Campaign - Family medicine is running out of time!

The AMA is running a campaign to help ensure family doctors are properly supported by the Government to care for patients.

As part of that campaign family doctors have been asked to display the Support Family Doctors (SFD) poster in waiting rooms and have the SFD brochure
available for patients who want more information.

Practices have also been requested to ask patients to sign a petition to tell both parties that during this Federal election campaign they insist on seeing policies that:

Support their right to choose their family doctor;
Support their right to see their family doctor as often as they need to;
Support the central role of their family doctor in delivering health care and advice to them and their families;
Provide support that will enable them to spend more time with their family doctor when they need it; and
Cut red tape – minimise the paperwork and processes that reduce the time that family doctors can spend caring for their patients.

Each signature is a reminder to Government of the need to support family doctors. Completed petitions can be returned to the AMA for collation at the fax number or address nominated on the petition.

You can easily print materials on demand by clicking on these links and printing the PDF (on a colour printer if available).

The petitions have been designed to be printed on a standard black and white printer.

If you would prefer, you can order hard copies of the poster and brochures by emailing memberservices@ama.com.au and providing your name and address. A set of materials will be sent as soon as possible.

'Family medicine is running out of time!' Poster
'Family medicine is running out of time!' Pamphlet
'Support family doctors: the heart of health' Petition (PDF)
'Support family doctors: the heart of health' Petition (Word document)

AMA's five point plan to protect and defend general practice.

This check list has been developed through extensive contact with GPs and patients. It includes evidence gained through a major national survey of 1510 patients and the daily experience of family doctors working in communities across the country.

Family doctors are the heart of the health system. Applying this simple check list will help ensure patients and family doctors get the support they need and deserve.

Read the checklist here.

Doctors overwhelmingly reject Government's plan for care for patients with diabetes - AMA survey.

A national AMA survey of GPs has revealed an overwhelming rejection of the Government’s proposed plan for care for patients with diabetes, with just four per cent of the respondents saying they would definitely participate in the new scheme. Read the media release here.

AMA survey of GP attitudes to Federal Government reforms to the funding of care for patients with diabetes.

Read the survey results here. Read the supporting media release from the Australian Diabetes Council here.

Federal Budget 2010 – how did general practice fare?

The Budget has confirmed the promised funding for the COAG health agreement and spells out new spending in key areas of the Government’s health reform agenda, including primary care and e-Health.

Find out how general practice fared in the budget here.

Australians want a health system that is built on the family doctor

The AMA undertook a major national survey of patients and their attitudes towards general practitioners. Read the survey here.

Read the media release on the survey here.

Read the AMA's five point check list for improving primary care here.

Chronic and complex disease care: the AMA proposes a better way

The AMA recognises the need for more efficient arrangements to support the provision of well-coordinated multidisciplinary care to patients with chronic and complex disease. If access to coordinated multidisciplinary care is improved then patients will benefit, the number of avoidable hospital admissions can be reduced, and long-term savings to the health system will be generated.

Read the Australian Medicine article on the plan here.

Read the AMA plan for patients with chronic and complex care needs here.

See AMA opinion here.