Legal advocacy, pharmacist training and correctional medicine: meet Dr Anchita Karmakar

Dr Anchita Karmakar is far from a conventional candidate for this year’s AMA president – but the rural generalist and law graduate says that’s exactly the edge the association needs for structured advocacy, medico-legal support and a larger membership base.

With a little more than two weeks until voting opens, the Queensland-based doctor dialled in for a chat with The Medical Republic.  

TMR: On 1 January 2026, AMA Queensland officially divorced from its longstanding joint membership structure with the federal AMA. You’re now calling for a united AMA, a sentiment other candidates have expressed. What about your approach is different? 

Dr Karmakar: I don’t look at [the separation] from an emotional perspective. I look at it by seeking relevant information. 

What was the actual contractual agreement, the commercial agreement between AMA Federal and the state and territories, and what is the actual basis for the arrangements they had? What is the intellectual property status? 

I’ll be able to look at it from a very legalistic point of view: examining the evidence and factual content and applying them to the principles of the Corporations Act and how these things are supposed to be structured. 

Another point of difference is that once I know where the issues are, I can solve them once and for all, so that we don’t end up in this situation of segregation or fragmentation, because this isn’t the first time this has happened. 

It’s just counterproductive to the core focus of what we’re trying to do. 

I just want to make sure we have strong documentation and relationship-building, which will bind us legislatively and conscientiously. 

TMR: You’ve been critical of the Queensland pharmacist prescribing pilot, which was never debated or voted on in parliament, but created and expanded through amendment regulations under the Medicines and Poisons Act 2019, with some services becoming permanent from 1 July 2025.   

You’ve also flagged that the Extended Practice Authorities, which set out what pharmacists can actually prescribe, are issued by Queensland Health’s chief executive rather than an act of parliament, meaning the scope can be updated without a parliamentary vote. 

Given that, what are the three biggest issues and challenges that concern you most for doctors?  

Dr Karmakar: In conversation with the doctors in training and the medical students, I think it is a very painful point for our [medical] family at the moment. They are really suffering. 

They don’t even feel they have a secure career ahead of them. They don’t feel heard. They don’t feel supported. 

That would be my top priority, especially given the nonsense around prac pay. Why are we always being excluded?  

And that segues into scope encroachment. Why did the legislative and regulatory framework that enabled the Queensland community pharmacy scope of practice pilot and its subsequent transition to permanent practice pass without proper due diligence, consultation, and governance? 

Expansion of prescribing scope of this magnitude occurred through regulation and departmental instruments rather than through primary legislation subject to full parliamentary scrutiny, committee review and broad consultation.  

By the time many of us in the profession engaged, the framework was already in force. 

There are two approaches to it. 

One is that it’s already happened. We need to do some damage control to ensure there are guardrails. 

The second point is that any expansion of scope of practice requires us to re-evaluate our cohort of doctors. Existing policies are hindering registrars from working in various situations. 

Why are we putting IMGs who do not have the depth and breadth of understanding of the Australian medical curriculum system into rural areas with no supervision or support? 

They are the exact type of cohort that should be working in the metropolitan area, with supervision and support. 

There are problems that need addressing before claiming health equity and access as the reason for this. 

Let’s talk collegiately. Let’s review the curriculum to ensure we’re effectively instructing [registrars] and establishing clear boundaries, because expanding scope of practice makes little sense when indexation issues are affecting our own medical students. 

The third priority is a medical-legal support mechanism within the AMA for people who are undergoing regulatory review. 

A lot of us practise in fear of regulation. There must be a central contact point to call if something goes wrong, is about to go wrong, or if you have questions in that area. 

Previously, there was an internal [AMA] legal infrastructure, and I know some states and territories have it. I would love to see that reignited at the federal level. 

We have two ideas.  

The first is a medical-legal in-house counsel service, allowing members to speak to a solicitor group that advises them based on their membership, not an insurance company’s budget. 

I’m also exploring language models for a Reddit-type platform within the AMA federal platform. 

Because we’ve got such a large number of specialists, as well as GPs, medical students, and doctors in training, we want to create an ecosystem where people can ask questions and connect with peers in a safe environment. 

Those are the three that I’m really trying to concentrate on. 

TMR: You have what some would call an almost unbelievable backstory.  

You migrated to Australia from India, and it was your daughter Juju – who lost her right eye to retinoblastoma cancer – who first inspired you to pursue medicine. 

After divorcing your husband following a decade of domestic violence, you verbally agreed to shared custody. That arrangement abruptly halted in 2012 after your ex-husband kidnapped Juju to India. You last had contact with her in 2014, after exhausting every legal option to bring her home. 

You later sued the Professional Services Review after Federal Court Judge Logan rejected the Government’s third attempt to have the case dismissed, although your case was ultimately dismissed too.  

Today, among your many other roles, you’re a senior Medical Officer and GP with West Moreton Prison Health Services.  

What have these experiences taught you about advocacy and what it means to be a leader? 

Dr Karmakar: I think I was born to do this job. 

I don’t let my past define me, but it’s given me purpose. Maybe it’s just the way I’ve been raised, but when I face adversity, I turn around and say, “Give me more”. 

That’s just how I’ve been since I was a child, and it has given me the ability to look at the worst thing on earth, find the reason and the lesson in why this is happening, and then try to see something positive in it. 

It also gave me the strength to complete my law degree, my fellowship in rural medicine and population health, and to hold executive positions in health services. 

That’s why I love correctional medicine, because it’s about giving second chances to people who may have made mistakes. 

You do need to have empathy, and you do need to give people second chances. The only person I won’t is my ex-husband, for the record. 

I’ve had some truly brilliant people around me who’ve shown me that leadership means walking the walk with the people. 

I think I’m a really good, well-rounded, holistic leader, and at this point in time, an organisation like AMA needs that. 

My experiences make me relatable because I know what it’s like to navigate a regulatory process. 

I know what it’s like not to sleep at 3 o’clock in the morning, thinking, am I going to have a job tomorrow, let alone my medical licence? Am I going to be able to pay my mortgage? 

I think I get people, and I see the best in everybody, and that’s the kind of leader I want to be. 

I’m definitely not the familiar face, and definitely not a veteran AMA officer or member. 

But I come from a place of innocence, because I still do and will continue to hold AMA as my home.  

I still remember my student days, when I was so excited to come out and say I was part of AMA and the medical board as a doctor. 

I still hold that, and I think I would love to come home and have the opportunity to help my people with all the knowledge I’ve been blessed with and the positive and negative experiences I’ve had. 

TMR: As AMA president, what would your top three priorities be?  

Dr Karmakar: Some really strong, structured advocacy and support that’s tangible, specifically for the big arterial bleed we have, which is our doctors in training and medical students. 

That includes a request for change and amendments to the current scope of practice encroachment, to ensure there are legislated guardrails and boundaries. 

The second is increased membership.  

Previously, I had an organisation, Australian Health Practitioners Advisory Solutions (AHPAS), which had about 40,000 doctors, and I know that if I am elected, those 40,000 doctors who still have connections with me would come across to AMA, and I think that would be a very significant addition to one organisation. 

I plan to discuss conjoined membership with similar organisations representing doctors, so all 150,000 doctors are under AMA.

And the third thing, as I mentioned, is a strong medical, legal, collegiate, and peer support mechanism within the AMA Federation, so that anyone facing Medicare, Professional Services Review, National Law, or AHPRA regulatory issues, or even personal dilemmas, can feel a sense of belonging. 

TMR: You’re the founder and medical director of Medi Edu, developed in partnership with Monash University, which trains pharmacists in prescribing. Given the AMA’s strong pushback on pharmacist prescribing, what would you say to doctors who may see your work as enabling the very scope-of-practice expansion they’re concerned about?  

Dr Karmakar: The way I got involved was purely by coincidence. One of my colleagues pointed out that his wife was going through the community pharmacy prescriber registration. 

Out of curiosity, I looked at the curriculum, which was in its infancy when the Queensland full-scope pharmacy was rolled out. 

[Pharmacists] did not have anything that resembled what I am currently teaching. 

And I got to the point where I went, “Oh my goodness!”. There were fundamental flaws in their curricula that haven’t been addressed or highlighted by anyone, and I don’t know who was looking after this legislation and allowed this to pass. 

So I then created Medi Edu.  

Because, number one, I don’t want any pharmacists to end up like me, being prosecuted and going through regulatory processes they will inadvertently face because of the omission of these fundamental things they need to learn when you become clinical reasoning practitioners. 

 I don’t want any of them to be reported or to go to bed at night thinking they’ve harmed a patient, because that is the worst feeling on earth. 

Sixteen health practitioners have died by suicide [while undergoing] AHPRA’s regulatory activities. Let’s not forget that, and I don’t wish that on any of us.

And number two, of course, is patient harm.  

One of the biggest questions is, why are pharmacists who complete a one-year course with minimal clinical exposure allowed to graduate and work autonomously in a community pharmacy? 

Why aren’t they required to do internships or review their scope with doctors like nurse practitioners do in other health services? Why isn’t that incorporated? 

Running for AMA presidency is a conflict of interest with my own company.  

The Pharmacy Guild and all the pharmacists are going, ‘Oh God, Anchita, why are you now going to run for someone that’s publicly against us?’ 

I’m saying, well, that’s not the point. And my narrative has never changed. 

It was always about identifying the flaws and the gaps, and I always wanted to teach [pharmacists]. 

Many people got it wrong, thinking I’m just there for the big bucks and that I’m supporting the pharmacists. 

I’m just supporting patients and health professionals. My narrative has never changed. 

If there’s a perceived conflict of interest and you declare it, that’s the end of the story. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

Voting for the 2026 AMA elections will be held at the AMA26 national conference on Saturday 29 August.  

TMR will be publishing long-form interviews with the other candidates, Dr Magdalena Simonis and Dr Michael Bonning, over the coming weeks. Interviews are being published in alphabetical order of the candidates’ first names.   

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