About PDA

Some doctors are different - they are prepared to think for themselves and not to slavishly adopt the opinions of their colleagues

Private Doctors of Australia started in 1968 as the General Practitioners' Society in Australia (GPSA), a disgruntled break-away group from within the Australian Medical Association (AMA). The GPSA took umbrage at the AMA's readiness to negotiate with government on matters that were considered beyond the proper scope of government control. Since that time PDA has developed a philosophical position that has made it quite distinct from any other medico-political organization. Because of increasing membership by specialists the organization's name was changed to Private Doctors of Australia in 1985.

PDA's attitude towards government is based on a strong belief in individual rights, the sanctity of private property, the contractual nature of the doctor-patient relationship and the primacy of private practice. Consequences which follow from these beliefs include a strong commitment to privacy and informed consent and opposition to any uninvited intervention in the doctor-patient relationship. 

PDA believes that the doctor should assess his or her own worth and charge a fee which is in keeping with market forces. The responsibility for payment of this fee rests entirely with the patient. Patients are entitled to select their doctor with regard to price and the quality of the service offered and to expect the doctor to abide by the terms of their agreement. Neither is the doctor the servant of the patient nor the patient the subordinate of the doctor.

Being a free-market organization, PDA does not support the provision of government-granted professional privileges, compulsory licensing or accreditation or restrictions on advertising. PDA is in favor of voluntary post-graduate continuing education for all doctors, but is opposed to the various government-supported monopolies in post-graduate education which currently minimize true competition. PDA believes that the scope of a physician's practice is dependent only on his or her medical knowledge, experience and ethical conscience.

When third parties become directly involved in the financing of health care, interference in the nature of the services provided inevitably follows. The lack of visibility of true costs in taxpayer-funded schemes inevitably results in an increase in both demand and in total costs. Rationing then occurs as governments tax and redistribute and decide what goods and services will be funded, to whom and to what extent. It is the individual, however, who is best equipped to decide how to spend the resources that he or she has created. Private insurers are able to limit demand by charging appropriate premiums and offering policies involving co-payments and high deductibles.  

PDA believes that medicine is a noble profession which requires high ethical standards from its members and it provides the philosophical basis on which those standards may be based.