The AMA today reaffirmed that it does not support nurse practitioners working independently of doctors.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the AMA supports meaningful collaborative care arrangements between doctors and nurses under new measures that came into effect this week, and welcomes Health Minister Roxon's public confirmation that the arrangements will not make nurse practitioners substitutes for doctors.

Dr Pesce said the Government and the health professions must be vigilant to ensure that the new arrangements provide the best possible care for patients and that some proposed models of care do not attempt to work against the spirit and the intent of the new legislation.

"Doctors support genuine collaborative care arrangements where doctors and nurses work together to provide complete ongoing care for their patients," Dr Pesce said.

"It is important that the family doctor remains involved in patient care through the collaborative arrangements.

"We note comments from the Health Minister yesterday where she acknowledged that there have been misinformed claims in the media this week about the effect of the new measures.

"There is no place for models of care that may seek to operate under the new system without genuine collaborative arrangements between doctors and nurses, or which may distance the patient from their family doctor.

"An AMA public survey earlier this year found that 88 per cent of Australians have a regular family doctor and that 83 per cent of Australians were satisfied with the medical care they received from their family doctor.

"The survey also found that 82 per cent of people agreed that the best outcome for patients is to have doctors and nurses working together, and 76 per cent agreed that nurses cannot replace family doctors because they lack the training to diagnose and treat the full range of illnesses.

"Proper medical diagnosis is at the heart of quality health care and must be at the heart of the new collaborative care arrangements.

"Collaborative care must be all about complete patient health care, not the fragmentation of health care.

"The AMA looks forward to working closely with the Government in monitoring and reviewing the new collaborative arrangements as they are rolled out to ensure that only genuine quality collaborative arrangements are in place to serve patients and communities."

Source:
Australian Medical Association