12 JULY 2024

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Indemnity cover will be limited under new rules .

Rachel Carter DOCTORS prescribing medicinal cannabis “ as a standalone practice ” need to undergo assessment from MDA National to confirm their indemnity cover .

The medical defence organisation ( MDO ) has added the service model to its “ unusual practice ” list , alongside stem cell therapies and human growth hormone prescribing .

NEWS , PAGE 18

These practices “ may not be covered ” by indemnity , it said , and doctors will need to seek written confirmation that they are still covered should something go wrong . Additionally , the MDO will refuse to cover any doctor for cannabis prescribing if they are not fellows of a specialist college or do not have “ equivalent specialist qualifications ”.

MDA National is yet to provide details on the equivalent specialist qualifications it deems acceptable .

Last year the organisation triggered an angry debate on the role of MDOs in determining scope

of practice for doctors after it restricted cover for GPs and other private practitioners who initiate hormone therapy for children and teens with gender dysphoria .

Doctors will need to seek written permission .

MDA National said last week that it considered medicinal cannabis “ an emerging risk from an insurance perspective ”.

As a result , it was requesting members prescribing medicinal cannabis to discuss their personal situation “ so that we can understand their scope of practice and advise accordingly ”.

Decisions on whether to cover a specialist would be based on “ a range of factors ”, including their qualifications , experience and the nature of practice , it said .

It also stressed that it would not cover registrars for prescribing medicinal cannabis in a telehealth clinic , or in a private capacity outside of their training program where they do not have access to indemnity from their employer .

The scale of medicinal PAGE 6

THE complaints process has been under fire due to its impact on doctors , whose emotional lives can be torn apart when subject to a notification .

Here is the story of just one GP in Melbourne who received a complaint out of the blue . She asked to remain anonymous .

On 1 August 2022 , I received a two-minute voice message from an AHPRA investigator .

He said I would soon be receiving a letter , via email , detailing a patient complaint and that I would have two weeks to respond before the matter was passed on to the Medical Board of Australia .

It was 11am , and I had the rest of the morning and the afternoon to get through having been told this .

Firstly , the letter had my address wrong .

When I got the letter the next day , it said the patient had had an accident and seen three practitioners in the approximately 10 years since who had not picked up that the patient needed a joint replacement .

Apparently , I was one of the practitioners .

There were two things . Firstly , the letter had my address wrong on it ; it was for a nearby clinic that had closed during COVID-19 . I had never worked at that clinic .

I also had no memory of the patient .

I had been at the PAGE 4