The AMA fears impending legislation changes on mandatory reporting requirements for treating practitioners are a second best solution that “will not stop doctor suicides”.
After a protracted campaign by doctors’ groups including the AMA to overturn laws requiring treating practitioners to notify authorities about doctors who seek help, plans to introduce amendments to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Amendment (Tranche 1A) Bill into the Queensland Parliament are just days away.
The amendment follows meetings of the COAG Health Council, at which health ministers have repeatedly been told how the laws – in place in all jurisdictions except WA – prevent doctors from seeking the care they need for mental health and substance abuse/dependency problems.
But the AMA says it now fears health ministers have adopted a “second best” solution at their most recent COAG meeting on 12 October.
Federal president Dr Tony Bartone says while the AMA has not seen the Bill, it fears the COAG Health Council has ignored the AMA’s proposed amendments, which were the next best thing to a WA-style approach.
The AMA’s proposed amendments were “vital to make the new national laws safe enough to give doctors confidence to seek help for their own health needs”, according to Dr Bartone.