Insights Categories: Health

In conjunction with 13 professional medical Colleges, Associations and Societies, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has released a Guide ‘Informed Financial Consent: A Collaboration Between Doctors and Patients. Assisting patients to understand their healthcare and its costs.’ (IFC Guide) to help patients understand their medical costs and fees. The IFC Guide was launched in late July […]

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 […]

Patients are increasingly using social media to post anonymous reviews and ratings about medical services they have received, both good and bad. Thankfully, most are positive. However, a critical review can be distressing for the practitioner and has the potential to damage reputation despite a bad review being just a scintilla of evidence as to […]

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 (Vic) (the Act) comes into operation on 19 June 2019, making Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD)[1] legal in Victoria. When the legislation comes into effect in June, Victorian registered medical practitioners need to be aware of their role in the application of the Act. For medical practitioners who wish to […]

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 […]

From 1 July 2019, the Shared Debt Recovery Scheme will allow the Commonwealth Government to hold a practitioner (primary debtor) as well as another party such as medical and other health practices (secondary debtor) responsible for repayment of debts resulting from incorrectly claiming Medicare benefits. According to the recently enacted Health Insurance (Medicare Compliance Shared […]

In July 2018 the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and Victoria Police announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding information sharing. Under the Victorian agreement, AHPRA can disclose information to Victoria Police where there are allegations or evidence of criminal offending including physical harm, sexual offending, production of exploitative material, or drug offences. The […]

From 1999 onwards, Dr Emil Gayed worked in public and private hospitals across NSW. During that time, complaints and concerns were raised regarding Dr Gayed’s professional practice and performance. Dr Gayed was disqualified from practice following a Tribunal finding that Dr Gayed had engaged in numerous incidences of unsatisfactory professional conduct, and that together they […]

The Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner (the Commissioner) can now issue general health warnings and ban unregistered service providers from treating patients, even before a complaint investigation is completed, if the Commissioner believes a health provider poses a serious danger to the public.  A breach of the new General Code of Conduct[1] (the Code) for providers […]

Legislation in Victoria now protects the medical and counselling records of victims of sexual assault from disclosure in Court hearings.[1] The legislation is directed at:- ‘remedying the mischief of sexual assault victims being deterred from reporting or giving full information to doctors or counsellors in the course of their treatment, because of uncertainty and fear […]

The concept of ‘Competent Professional Practice’ has been considered by Courts in a number of recent NSW cases determining medical negligence. In a recent medical negligence case South Western Sydney Local Health District v Gould [2018] NSWCA 69 (Gould),[1] the NSW Court of Appeal (NSWCA) considered the interpretation of the statutory ‘irrational’ exception to the […]