The AMA played an active role in Australia’s pandemic response at both Federal and State/Territory levels. While there are areas for improvement, the AMA’s view is that Australia managed the pandemic quite well for the first two years. Australia performed best when Governments listened to the advice of the medical and scientific community, particularly in the first eighteen months.
This submission has limited comments on many significant impacts that COVID-19 had on Australia’s health system and the responses enacted to deal with them due to the tight word limit. As such, it focuses on three areas of acute importance for the AMA: the need to restore telehealth items to pandemic settings, continuing support for a GP-led vaccination program, and ensuring that our medical and scientific leaders continue to play a direct role in our pandemic management.
