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18 October 2018
Professor Allan Fels
Chairman
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
PO Box 1199
DICKSON ACT 2602Via Facsimile: (02) 6243 1199
Dear Professor Fels
Rockhampton Obstetricians
I understand that the Commissioners of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) will soon be considering the situation of the three obstetricians in Rockhampton who are under investigation by the ACCC. On behalf of all of the members of the AMA I request that this action be ceased immediately in order to ensure that the Rockhampton community continues to have some obstetric services, and to provide at least some natural justice to the doctors who have been so unmercifully persecuted for nearly a year.
The obstetricians in Rockhampton were seeking to ensure around-the-clock obstetric services for their patients while at the same time allowing each of them enough off-duty hours to maintain a reasonable family life and provide some other medical services, such as assistance to local Aboriginal communities.
Thousands of doctors all over Australia are entering into these sorts of arrangements to ensure 24 hour, 7 day medical services for their patients while still providing adequate time for family, professional development and recreation.
Without a capacity to form rosters, which includes telling each other how much patients will be charged for the weekends and after hours consultations that the doctors share, medical practice will become untenable in many areas, particularly in rural and regional Australia.
In Rockhampton the obstetric roster no longer functions. The AMA has been advised that one of the doctors has withdrawn entirely from obstetrics and another one is planning to do so mid year.
AMA members cannot comprehend what public benefit the Commission has achieved for the Rockhampton community by destroying the roster arrangements and reducing the availability of private obstetric services by two thirds.
The AMA is of the view that the Trade Practices Act (TPA) was never intended to be applied in these circumstances and certainly not designed to achieve the outcome that has occurred.
As you are aware, the Prime Minister has appointed Mr Warwick Wilkinson to lead a Review Team considering the impact of the TPA on the recruitment and retention of rural doctors. A broader trade practices review, which will take into account the conduct of the ACCC, is also about to commence.
The AMA requests that the Commission ceases the prosecution of the Rockhampton doctors and any other medical practitioners and supports the amendments of the TPA so that doctors can continue to provide the best possible medical care to patients.
Yours sincerely
Dr Kerryn Phelps
Federal President
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