Australian Medical Association - Tasmania

23/04/2026

You started following her for her style tips. Don't let her influence your health choices. Mute unqualified health advice. Save the jab chat for your doctor’s office. When everyone’s an expert, make sure you get qualified advice. Your doctor knows your health history and has over a decade of medical training. Havethejabchat.com

Resources for doctors: To access printable posters visit havethejabchat.com/resources

23/04/2026

Australians are being urged to Have the Jab Chat with their GP as the AMA launches a new national campaign to help cut through vaccine misinformation ahead of World Immunisation Week.

With vaccination rates slipping below the 95 per cent level needed for strong community protection, AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen says trusted medical advice has never been more important.

Launching the campaign, Dr McMullen said: “No question is too silly when it comes to your health."

The Have the Jab Chat campaign encourages Australians who feel unsure or overwhelmed to speak with their GP, who can provide personalised, confidential, evidence‑based advice that online tools simply can’t match.

23/04/2026

AMA Tasmania is backing AMA Federal’s “Have the Jab Chat” campaign, encouraging Australians to speak with their GP about vaccination.

With misinformation spreading fast online, it’s no surprise some people feel unsure or overwhelmed. But when it comes to vaccination, you deserve advice that’s qualified, personalised and confidential - you deserve your doctor.

Immunisation rates have fallen since the pandemic, and some childhood coverage is now below the level needed for strong community protection. A calm conversation with your GP can help cut through the noise and support confident decisions.

Here in Tasmania, we have also called on the Tasmanian Government to subsidise the nasal spray flu vaccine for kids so cost is not a barrier for families, and we can lift protection across the whole community.

Watch Dr Meg Creely and then book a chat with your GP or practice nurse about the vaccines that are right for you and your family.

Australian Medical Association

22/04/2026

Together with the RHH MSA we are concerned that these planned changes to move the Postgraduate Medical Education Council of Tasmania (PMCT) into the Department of Health could remove an independent, trusted pathway for junior doctors to seek support and raise concerns. Junior doctors and senior clinicians were not properly consulted and we are together calling for the changes to be paused and properly consulted on.

Fears are building that Tasmania’s junior doctors could be seriously disadvantaged by planned changes to an independent body delivering early medical career support.

21/04/2026

21/04/2026

Nurses play a vital role in patient care in practices across the country, but current funding and policy settings prevent GP clinics from maximising their skills.

Today we are calling for reforms to funding and workplace arrangements to support the expansion of safe, effective and team-based care by nurses in general practice, which will improve access to healthcare.

In a position statement released today and in our 2026-27 pre-budget submission on workforce we are calling on the federal government to:

✅expand the Workforce Incentive Program, including uncapping and indexing payments

✅Modernise Medicare to enable practice nurses to better support patient care, including by developing specific MBS items for care delivered by nurses under GP oversight, and expanding the circumstances where time spent by nurses with patients counts toward a time-tiered GP attendance item

✅fund GP clinical governance and care-team leadership

✅support career pathways for nurses in general practice.

Find out more 🔗https://tinyurl.com/3mne93ex

21/04/2026

Add your voice. Doctors are strongest when we stand together. The AMA strengthens that voice.

21/04/2026

Our GP members are urging Tasmanians to ‘have the jab chat’ with your GP. With influenza season approaching, AMA Tasmania is encouraging Tasmanians to book their flu vaccination now and talk with their GP if they have questions.

Dr Meg Creely, Vice President of AMA Tasmania, GP and mum, said flu is one of the infections that hits hardest in winter, and it can move quickly through households, schools and workplaces, affecting people of all ages.

Most people will get the standard flu vaccine by injection. For children aged 2–11, some practices are also offering an intranasal vaccine (nasal spray). At this point however in Tasmania, it is not funded under the National Immunisation Program, so families may pay up to $65 per child.

With influenza season approaching, AMA Tasmania is encouraging Tasmanians to book their flu vaccination now and talk with their GP if they have questions.Dr Meg Creely, Vice President of AMA Tasmania, GP and mum, said flu is one of the infections that hits hardest in winter, and it can move quickly....

17/04/2026

The Medical Republic: Private billing name-and-shame is ‘gutless politics’: AMA Tasmania. A federal politician’s ‘disappointing political stunt’ will likely increase patient aggression toward general practice staff in the island state.

AMA Tasmania is calling out federal Labor member for Franklin Julie Collins for “naming and shaming” non-bulk billing clinics in a political flyer sent to constituents earlier this week.

According to the state medical association, and evidenced in a since-deleted Facebook post, the flyer contained a list specifically naming the 100% bulk billing clinics and the “not yet 100% bulk billing” clinics in the area.

A federal politician’s ‘disappointing political stunt’ will likely increase patient aggression toward general practice staff in the island state.

16/04/2026

TO BE FRANK: with Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel, AMA Tasmania President

We have recently seen a politician name up GP practices in a newsletter who were not bulk billing patients. This was an irresponsible act which is likely to lead to people working in those practices being abused by members of the public.

No worker deserves abuse, especially when it is inadequate federal government funding that means they cannot afford to accept the Medicare rebate as the only payment for their service.

The doctors fee covers the doctors wage, nurses wage and receptionist wage and all the costs that go into running a business - rent, electricity, IT - the list goes on.

What we need is for Medicare to be modernised. It’s an old model no longer fit for purpose. We want patients to be able to afford the best of primary health care so they don’t get sick and need our overcrowded, bed blocked hospitals. My message to all politicians is this - Instead of attacking General Practice, work with us.
Help us help you.

16/04/2026

Don’t miss this timely conversation as health and medical misinformation continues to spread, online and off.

This year’s Arthur Cobbold Lecture features Professor Tony Lawler, Deputy Secretary, Health Products Regulation Group, and Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) at the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. A 1995 University of Tasmania School of Medicine alumnus and past President of AMA Tasmania, Tony will present: Leadership, Regulation and Trust in the Age of Misinformation. REGISTER HERE - https://www.utas.edu.au/events/2026/april/2026-arthur-cobbold-lecture

And while Tony’s more than up to the task, he is following in big shoes after our CEO Lara Giddings’ 2025 Arthur Cobbold Lecture, The Decisions That Shape Our Health. WATCH HERE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X3EaVAnbVc&t=2s

Professor Tony Lawler explores how Australia’s health system navigates risk, regulation and public trust in an age of misinformation.

15/04/2026

MEDIA STATEMENT: Naming of non-bulk billing general practices, being promoted by Federal Labor MP Julie Collins in the electorate of Franklin, is a disappointing political stunt and goes more than a step too far.

Naming and shaming clinics that haven’t been able to viably make the shift to full bulk billing hangs them out to dry. It paints practices as the problem, invites hostility from frustrated patients, and leaves reception staff and GPs to absorb the fallout, including abuse, at the front desk and in the consult room.

Julie Collins must publicly apologise to each of the clinics named in her political flyer, which will now suffer the wrath of their patients for a problem of successive governments’ own making. Read full statement here - https://www.ama.com.au/articles/name-and-shame-wont-fix-bulk-billing-fund-care-properly