The Canberra Liberals have welcomed comments made by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) backing an independent inquiry into the ACT’s health system following our calls for a Royal Commission yesterday.

AMA ACT branch President Professor Walter Abhayaratna told the Canberra Times today that the ACT health system was at ‘crisis point’ and an independent inquiry ‘has merit and it is something we would support’.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) ACT branch secretary also said they are open to looking at details of a royal commission and stated, ‘we need something significant to change in ACT in the public health system’.

Shadow Health Minister Leanne Castley said comments from a number of stakeholders including the AMA and ANMF show the ACT health system is severely broken and needs an inquiry like a Royal Commission but the only one who can’t seem to acknowledge that is the Health Minister.

“The response from the Health Minister yesterday to immediately reject our calls for a royal commission and say she knows what all the problems are and is fixing them is quite frankly astounding,” Ms Castley said.

“As stated by the AMA, currently the system is producing suboptimal outcomes despite the hard work of clinicians no matter what resources are being put into it.

“We hear from frontline health staff and patients daily, telling us how broken the ACT health system is and I am sure the AMA and ANMF are hearing the same.

“The Canberra Liberals are saying enough is enough, we need to address these significant problems and give assurances to frontline staff and Canberrans that there is a pathway forward but the Health Minister has once again turned her back on them,” Ms Castley concluded