The Australian Medical Association (AMA) provided this submission to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Reference Group of the MBS Review Taskforce. The submission makes recommendations in relation to MBS items for mental health, chronic disease management, substance misuse, and Aboriginal health checks.

Hospital admissions have risen faster than population growth, and last financial year saw a rise in influenza related hospitalisations, according to this report. There were also relatively high rates of admissions classified as potentially preventable in 2017–18.

The AMA provided a submission to the report from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Reference Group (Reference Group).

This report focuses on the implications of the increase in the number of doctors and changes in workforce composition for several key areas: the extent and nature of competition in the medical sector; doctors’ earnings; the role of the private sector; and technological change, data and information.

This report, prepared by the Victorian peak body representing mental health consumers, analyses recent publicly available data to rank 23 hospital-based mental health services, from best to worst, based on how often they use ‘seclusion.’