AMA calls for super clinics inquiry
13th Oct 2011 AAP all articles by this author
HEALTH Minister Nicola Roxon has taken a swipe at the AMA following the association’s call for the auditor-general to investigate the federal government's GP super clinics program.
The move by the AMA comes after Ms Roxon announced the scrapping of a planned clinic in Darwin on Wednesday and the axing of a Tasmanian super clinic last week.
AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton has written to Auditor-General Ian McPhee "urging a thorough audit of the program by the Australian National Audit Office".
Dr Hambleton accused the government of putting political needs ahead of patients.
"There is emerging evidence that the GP super clinics program is a failed initiative in concept, design and implementation," he said in a statement.
"In terms of planning, the location of clinics appears to be largely a political process that is not necessarily linked to community need."
Ms Roxon hit back, accusing the AMA of being unhelpful.
"The AMA is not interested in ways to improve the GP super clinic program," she told AAP in a statement.
"They have never supported it and never accepted the need to find ways to attract doctors to undersupplied areas.
"Those who don't change with the times are often reduced to an ineffective chorus muttering on the edge of the stage about keeping things the way they always were."
It was revealed last week that a $2.5 million clinic in Tasmania was to be abandoned, while on Monday Ms Roxon pledged $3.2 million to bail out a stalled Brisbane clinic.
Dr Hambleton said that if the program was found to be flawed, allocated funds should be redirected to improve existing general practices.
The Coalition's Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Healthcare, Dr Andrew Southcott, said the GP super clinics program was a shambles from the beginning.
The Country Liberals MP for Solomon, Natasha Griggs, said Ms Roxon needed to explain how the $5 million originally allocated for primary healthcare in Darwin was going to be spent.
Ms Roxon said 17 GP super clinics are operational Australia-wide. Another 16 are providing early services or are under construction.
