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Tort Law Reform must be political priority as Victorians head to polls
Both the Labor and Liberal party must promise to make tort law reform a chief priority in the next term of Government to stop the impending crisis in the availability of health services in
AMA Victoria President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, has warned the political parties to act promptly to address the issue of increasing medical indemnity premiums and the great uncertainty patients and their doctors face regarding access to indemnity cover.
Dr Haikerwal said “it is now time for the politicians to make the tough decisions rather than simply sitting on their own hands.”
“The downward spiral in bulk-billing rates, the difficulty in accessing other medical services as doctors withdraw from more risky but necessary work and the early retirement of doctors are all problems directly attributable to escalating premiums” said Dr Haikerwal.
“Although the Bracks’ Government has made some changes and offered some support in critical areas these actions alone are remain inadequate. Therefore seeing anything other than a marginal effect on premiums is unlikely.”
“Unless other changes identified by AMA Victoria are implemented as a matter of urgency we can expect to see this worrying trend of doctors simply walking away from practice to not only continue but worsen.”
“What this fundamentally means is the public, especially in rural areas, have limited access to quality health services” said Dr Haikerwal.
AMA Victoria has identified the introduction of an effective general damages threshold, further amendment to the statute of limitations, the introduction of a scheme for long term care costs and amendments to the standard of care for medical negligence as necessary actions if either political party is serious about stemming the medical indemnity problem.
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