Insights Categories: Compliance

Striking the balance: Do the recent amendments to mandatory reporting obligations go far enough?

Despite significant resistance by key stakeholders, amendments to mandatory reporting obligations in respect of registered health practitioners treating other health practitioners for medical conditions, including mental health issues, have now been passed by the Queensland parliament. This article follows Meridian Lawyers’ earlier Health Insights article (which can be read here), wherein we discussed the Council […]

Ask for help, and ask early – advice for surviving an AHPRA notification

Meridian Lawyers regularly assists health practitioners who have been the subject of notification to statutory health authorities such as AHPRA, HCCC and the OHO. Our role is to help these practitioners understand, respond to and navigate the complaints process.  Unfortunately, we regularly hear clients express distress that they are the subject of complaint. Many suffer […]

Steroids and hormone therapies – Off label use or misuse/abuse?

Pharmacists are expected to have a contemporary knowledge of the drugs that are subject to abuse or misuse, both generally and in their own localities. Steroids and hormone therapies are one of many groups of medications that are the subject of abuse/misuse. Many individuals source anabolic steroids illicitly from coaches, friends, teammates, gym employees, relatives […]

SafeScript provides prescribers and pharmacists with real time access to the prescription history of their patients for high risk medicines.

SafeScript provides Victorian prescribers and pharmacists access to the prescription history of their patients for high-risk medicines. SafeScript information can alert the prescriber and dispenser to patients at risk of harm or overdose associated with high risk medicines, and assist with deciding whether to prescribe or dispense the high-risk medicine. SafeScript will be implemented across […]

Getting it right – meeting your legal and professional obligations in advertising

New resources provided by AHPRA and National Boards aim to help health practitioners understand and comply with their legal and professional obligations under the National Law. Understanding and meeting legal obligations with regard to advertising and avoiding complaints to regulators can be a daunting task for health practitioners. The national regulator, AHPRA, has released a […]

Medication Misadventure – Methotrexate: A reminder to pharmacists to exercise independent judgment about the safety of a prescribed medicine.

This article was originally published as a PDL Practice Alert. It was written by Scott Ames, Principal and PDL Professional Officers, John Guy and Gary West. A recent inquest into the death of an elderly patient in Victoria [1] has put a spotlight on a pharmacist’s duty to exercise independent judgement when dispensing medication.   Background On 29 […]

‘SafeScript’ Roll-out: An update for practitioners on important regulatory changes from 1 July 2018

The Victorian Department of Health has confirmed that the implementation of the ‘SafeScript’ real-time prescription monitoring system will begin later this year. The initial roll-out is set to take place in the Western Victoria Primary Health Network catchment area before it is extended to the remainder of the State in 2019. ‘SafeScript’ is intended to […]

National registration of paramedics – mandatory notifications: what paramedics need to know about their mandatory reporting obligations

With national registration of paramedics set to commence later this year, paramedics should start to familiarise themselves with the obligations and responsibilities that come with national registration. As registered health practitioners, paramedics will be subject to the provisions of the Health Practitioner National Law (the National Law) and as such, will be subject to mandatory […]

Accepting gifts from patients – before you partake of that bottle of wine, stop and consider a few factors

Most GPs experience infrequent offers of gifts from their patients over the course of their career. Occasional gifts of wine, home-cooked cakes, chocolates and flowers are commonplace in most GP clinics. However, some patients have a tendency to give gifts more frequently, or of greater commercial value, than others. This starts to pose difficult questions […]

Victoria to roll out real-time prescription monitoring system in 2018

In response to a growing number of deaths and harm resulting from the misuse of prescription medicines in Victoria, the government has announced that it will roll out a real-time prescription monitoring system this year. Fred IT Group has been appointed to design and develop the ‘SafeScript’ system, which is intended to provide up-to-date information […]

Medical Board seeks community input on revised sexual boundaries guidelines

The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) is currently taking submissions regarding changes it proposes to make to the existing guidelines concerning sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship[1] (Guidelines).  The proposed draft can be found on the Medical Board of Australia website, and will be available for community consultation until 29 March 2018. The review has […]

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