AMA Queensland today called for a common sense approach to national registration, saying despite misinformed reports to the contrary the Association supported a national register of doctors.

AMA Queensland president Dr Ross Cartmill said the AMA had been calling for a national registration database for years, but Australian patients needed a safe and sensible approach to its establishment.

“Indeed it needs to be recognised that the Federal AMA had been working for months with the previous government to fine tune a system of national registration,” Dr Cartmill said.

“Setting up another unwieldy, remote bureaucracy will not redress any of the concerns we have with the current system.

Dr Cartmill said the AMA’s concern with the current Council of Australian Governments (COAG) model is it would take standards, training and accreditation out of the hands of the medical Colleges and pass them to bureaucrats, who knew nothing about medicine.

“This is only going to exacerbate the problem, not solve it,” he said.

“Training and accrediting doctors is a complicated process - as well it should be - to ensure Australia continues to be recognised as having some of the highest standards in the world.

“This recognition has been achieved through the College system of training and this system needs to be safeguarded and maintained,” Dr Cartmill said.

“So proposing to take training and accreditation out of the hands of the people who are best qualified to do it, that is the Medical Colleges, is thoroughly illogical and unsafe.

“It is akin to the airline industry making the customer service staff responsible for the training of pilots and mechanics.

Dr Cartmill said a national database would enable workforce mobility and efficient transfer of information across the states, and would serve to strengthen patient care.

“However watering down standards, accreditation and training will simply compromise patient care,” he said.

Dr Cartmill said the AMA had proposed an alternate model that would provide increased protection for patients from ‘rogue’ doctors and would guarantee the highest possible quality and safety of medical care for the community.

“To say the AMA is against national registration is simply wrong.

“What we do want is a safe system of national registration,” Dr Cartmill said.

Ends.

CONTACT: Kate Van Poelgeest on 3872 2221 or 0400 110 565