Anaesthetists are demanding the MBS Review chair Professor Bruce Robinson be sacked after claiming they were making a lot of money protecting their colonoscopy lists at the expense of more complex anaesthetic work.

In a blunt speech this month, Professor Robinson argued between 5% and 10% of doctors risked “cooking the MBS goose” by their continued exploitation of loopholes in MBS item descriptors to make inappropriate claims.

He went on to argue that doctors — including groups of anaesthetists — were also actively blocking his task force’s reforms because they were more interested in protecting their access to the more lucrative MBS items.

“Those [anaesthetists] who are doing the colonoscopy lists will guard them with their lives,” he told the RACGP general practice owners conference.