The absence of many voices in protest

To the Editor: In his message From the Editor’s Desk,1 Van Der Weyden laments what he perceives to be “the absence of many voices in protest” against the current Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) proposals2 for national systems of registration and accreditation of the Australian health workforce.

The absence of an “overwhelming public response” to the proposals can surely be attributed to the general public’s lack of awareness of the proposals. It cannot be said, however, that the medical profession has been idle.

By the time this letter is published, the situation in regard to the proposals is likely to be much clearer. To date, all elements of the medical profession have been very active in seeking to achieve the best possible outcomes from the COAG proposals for our patients and for the profession. These efforts were impeded initially by the lack of specificity available from the COAG Health Working Group.

Clear evidence of the effectiveness of the efforts of the Australian Medical Council, the Australian Medical Association, and the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC) and its individual member Colleges was the abandonment of the second consultation paper after the profession’s analysis and evaluation of the proposals presented. As I write, government officials are meeting to develop a new model which recognises the profession’s criticisms and views.

The profession’s message clearly has reached the federal Minister for Health, who asserted recently that it appeared that “the best way forward is to have separate national registration boards for medicine and for each of the other health professions”.3 This is a significant departure from the original COAG proposal.

The CPMC and its member Colleges are well aware of the undesirable developments in other countries where governments are attempting to take control of regulation of the medical profession, as mentioned by Van Der Weyden.1 At their meeting on 15 February, the College presidents endorsed a two-page statement of key issues in regard to the COAG proposals. This statement has been sent to the premiers, chief ministers and health ministers in each state and territory, as well as to the relevant federal government agencies.

At the same time, it is appropriate for the Colleges to cooperate responsibly with government initiatives, provided those initiatives do not diminish in any way the safety and quality of health services provided in Australia or threaten the sovereignty of the Colleges in the determination and maintenance of standards for their respective disciplines.