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The Board has issued guidelines for medical practitioners who perform cosmetic medical and surgical procedures. They apply to all medical practitioners, including specialist plastic surgeons, cosmetic surgeons and cosmetic physicians regardless of their qualifications.
The Board consulted widely with the profession and the community about the best way to protect consumers seeking cosmetic medical and surgical procedures and received a record number of submissions.
The new guidelines, which will take effect on 1 October 2016 to give medical practitioners time to comply with them, require:
The Board has also made recommendations to other authorities about safety concerns that it identified but does not have the power to address. The Board has called for these agencies to deal with inconsistencies in drugs and poisons legislation across jurisdictions and strengthen and align the licensing and regulation of private health facilities, including the use of sedation and anaesthesia.
Background
Cosmetic medical and surgical procedures are performed by medical practitioners with a range of different qualifications. The problems that arise for patients are not all caused by one group of practitioners. By setting guidelines that apply to everyone, the Board is doing what it can to make sure that all medical practitioners practise within their skill and ability and provide safe care to their patients.
The Board decided to issue guidelines because it believed this was the best way to protect consumers. The consultation process demonstrated broad support for more specific regulatory guidance in this area of medical practice and led the Board to make some changes to its original proposal. The final guidelines differ from the initial draft by:
More information, including a copy of the guidelines and links to FAQ, is available in this news item on the Board’s website.
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We are recruiting for a Professional Officer who is a registered medical practitioner, to assess applications from international medical graduates for registration to work in general practice.
For this role you must have unconditional general or specialist registration as a medical practitioner and extensive experience in a general practice and/or primary care setting.
The role is part time (0.4 FTE) for a 12-month fixed term and can be based in any state or territory. The closing date for applications is 6 June 2016.
See the AHPRA website for the position description and more information.
Medical practitioners who no longer need a type of registration that allows them to practise can apply for non-practising registration. This type of registration may be suitable for medical practitioners who:
Under the National Law, medical practitioners with non-practising registration must not practise the profession. When deciding whether non-practising registration could apply to you, remember that medical practitioners with non-practising registration must not:
Medical practitioners with non-practising registration who wish to prescribe and/or refer to other health practitioners may apply for general or specialist registration and will need to meet the Board’s registration standards for:
The Board has published a statement on Medical registration – What does it mean? Who should be registered? to help individuals with medical qualifications to decide whether or not they should be registered. It also provides advice on the activities that can be undertaken without requiring practising registration.
There is a reduced fee for non-practising registration (currently $141 compared with $724 for general and/or specialist registration).
Medical practitioners with non-practising registration can continue to use the courtesy title of ‘doctor’.
For more information see:
This week you may have received an email from Dr Joanna Flynn, Chair of the Board, inviting you to complete an anonymous online survey. The Board is interested to explore the views of the medical profession about how doctors build trust with patients and what we need to do to demonstrate that we are competent and fit to practise medicine. We are also interested to understand how medical practitioners access information from the Board.
If you were one of the 15,000 doctors randomly selected, we encourage you to participate and provide your views.
The online responses are anonymous and the Board will only receive de-identified data from the social research company Ipsos, which is conducting the research on behalf of the Board.
The survey will take about fifteen minutes; details are in the email from AHPRA. The survey closes on 20 June 2016 and the findings will be published later in 2016.
The Board hopes to have a high response rate to ensure we understand the views of the profession. More consultation will occur as this work progresses.
There are vacancies on the Queensland Medical Board for medical practitioners and community members. Applications close 30 May 2016. For further information, read the call for applications on our website.
AHPRA, on behalf of the Board, has successfully prosecuted a former doctor, Ms Cynthia Weinstein, for holding herself out as a medical practitioner. Her company, CDC Clinics (Cosmetic Discount Centre), was convicted and fined. Read more in the media statement.
AHPRA on behalf of the 14 National Boards publishes a record of panel, court and tribunal decisions about registered health practitioners. Summaries are published when there is clinical and educational value.
Under the National Law, the Board must refer a matter about a registered medical practitioner or student to a tribunal if the Board reasonably believes that the practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct; or the practitioner’s registration was improperly obtained because the Board was given false or misleading information. The Board must also refer the matter to a tribunal if a panel established by the Board requires the Board to do so.
Medical practitioners may also appeal certain decisions of the Board to a tribunal or court.
AHPRA publishes summaries of tribunal or court cases. These can be sourced at Tribunal decisions on the AHPRA website. The Board and AHPRA sometimes choose to not publish summaries, for example about cases involving practitioners with impairment.
A full library of published hearing decisions from tribunals or courts relating to complaints and notifications made about health practitioners or students is available on the Austlii website.
In NSW and Queensland, different arrangements are in place.
In NSW, medical tribunal, court and committee decisions are published separately. In Queensland, complaints are received by the Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO).
More information is available on AHPRA’s website under Notification outcomes and hearing decisions.
Medical Board of Australia v Alroe
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that it was not necessary for conditions to be imposed on Dr Christopher Alroe’s specialist registration. Read more in the tribunal summary.
Medical Board of Australia v Pearse
The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal dismissed a referral by the Board against Dr Glen Pearse. Read more in the tribunal summary.
When investigating a notification, state and territory committees of the Medical Board of Australia may refer a medical practitioner to a health panel hearing, or a performance and professional standards panel hearing.
Under the National Law, panel hearings are not open to the public. AHPRA publishes a record of panel hearing decisions made since July 2010. Summaries have been provided when there is educational and clinical value. These summaries are accessible from hyperlinks within the table. Practitioners' names are not published, consistent with the requirements of the National Law. This table does not include summaries of panel decisions made under previous legislation, even if these were held after July 2010.
Please note: Practitioners are responsible for keeping up to date with the Board’s expectations about their professional obligations. The Board publishes standards, codes and guidelines as well as alerts in its newsletter. If you unsubscribe from this newsletter you are still required to keep up to date with information published on the Board’s website.
Comment on the Board newsletter is welcome and should be sent to [email protected].
For registration enquiries or contact detail changes, call the AHPRA customer service team on 1300 419 495 (from within Australia).