“The Australian Medical Association favours freer movement of health professionals around the country and information sharing among jurisdictions, but is opposed to governments gaining control over standards and qualifications of health professionals,” said AMA (NSW) President Dr Andrew Keegan.

“AMA (NSW) endorses continuing reform of registration procedures including background checks of practitioners.  We have been involved in improvements to incident management systems in public and private hospitals and recently supported the mandatory reporting of severe professional misconduct.

“The scheme before COAG could allow governments to solve workforce shortages by reducing the length of study or allowing health workers to move among professions.  Patients entrusting their lives to a doctor have the right to be treated by a professional who has undergone the appropriate education and training and has been evaluated by their peers.

“If disciplinary procedures went to a national level they would only take longer and be further removed from the communities affected.  The AMA believes that the   screening and disciplinary procedures should stay with the state and territory medical boards.  On the other hand a national database of doctors and a ‘drivers licence’ model of registration would allow easier portability of registration around Australia,” Dr Keegan said.