Letters
TWEET OF THE WEEK
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The cost of targeting doctors
Letters
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EDITOR According to the statistics quoted, 96-99 % of Australia’ s 111,000 registered medical practitioners are meeting or exceeding performance indicators(‘ Age discrimination? Older GPs face mandatory competency checks’, 8 December).
Wouldn’ t it make more sense to focus on identifying the poor performers, particularly the very few that generate most of the complaints?
At present, we make nearly 110,000 registrants spend many hours on demonstrating compliance with CPD requirements, instead of delivering much-needed healthcare. A convincing case for such onerous CPD requirements has not been made.
Looking at AHPRA’ s most recent annual report, the percentage of registered doctors who were not subjected to conditions, reprimands or suspensions was 99.21 %.
If you were an infectious diseases specialist, would you give antibiotics to 1000 people in order to treat eight sick ones?
Dr Julian Parmegiani Psychiatrist, Sydney, NSW
EDITOR“ All doctors will have to undergo at least 50 hours of CPD per year...” This represents some 200 standard consultations, 100 detailed palliative family discussions, six full days of clinical attachments, at least
FROM THE WEB
TWEET OF THE WEEK
“ While sales [ of codeinecontaining medicine ] represent a lucrative financial return of over $ 150 million a year for the pharmacy industry, patients are paying for this with their lives.”
— RACGP @ DrBastianSeidel bit. ly / 2iPJuWX
Follow us at @ australiandr two major conference / workshop events, or some $ 10,000- $ 15,000 of GP time.
I presume Medicare will be reimbursing this time via a new item number, as by my estimation, this represents another 2-4 % pay cut, depending on individual workloads. Dr Fergus Maclagan GP, Flagstaff Hill, SA
EDITOR The motivation for all this increased CPD and assessment is, allegedly, to protect the public and ensure high levels of clinical / performance among doctors and surgeons. In principle, this approach seems sensible and noble, and I feel most
Creepy people still need healthcare
( Police warn of sex offender targeting GPs, 4 December) Decades ago, I encountered two such individuals, who would make an appointment, always have a groin problem and then become aroused. I’ m sure that many young female colleagues experience the same situation. No alarms when I was young. Back then, our practice sent a letter to the individuals, saying that appointments with female doctors were not available to them, but the males were happy to see them. Never saw them again.
Dr Maureen Fitzsimon
Many creepy males book appointments with female GPs— being creepy is not a crime. The police can only do so much. On the flip-side— he has a right to medical care. The issue is flagging such patients discreetly( this article is not discreet), managing inappropriate behaviour within consults and empowering staff to report illegal behaviour ASAP.
Dr Natalie Barrington
Solo GPs are far from‘ isolated’
( Plan to support isolated doctors won’ t be cheap, 4 December) The assumption that GPs“ working in private solo practice, in part-time positions with limited patient contact hours or in after-hours work may be putting patients at risk” is baseless, offensive and almost certainly wrong. As a full VR, QI & CPD up-todate GP in after-hours solo practice, I am in frequent
practitioners would agree maintaining safety and competence in practice is important.
However, what we don’ t see is a proportionate increase in remuneration or rebates for clinical or practice services that all the compulsory CPD, training and revalidation is meant to underpin. Why are doctors( or any other registered healthcare provider) expected to pay escalating professional and registration fees and high costs for CPD and assessment when there does not seem to be a reasonable return on the investment?
It is worth remembering that all regulatory ideology plays a major role in policy development.
contact with other GPs, ED consultants and on-call specialty registrars. In fact, I have more such contact now than I did when I was a member of a 10-12 GP metropolitan in-hours practice. The reason? Back then 20-30 % of consultations were strictly medical, the remainder were administrative and / or preventative. Only the former group contained any quandaries. Moreover, after several intra-practice impromptu conferences, it
My academic experience has taught me that research evidence is all too often selected to match the ideology, rather than quality research being the scaffold for good policy.
Would it not be better if regulatory organisations pooled their funds and developed a valid process to identify poorly performing healthcare professional, rather than burden safe, competent practitioners with more and more expensive and laborious policy without any improvement in remuneration?
Dr Gregory Parkin-Smith GP registrar, Dunsborough, WA
EDITOR Surely the AMA will initiate an age discrimination action to stop this madness in its tracks. They will protect our rights, won’ t they? Dr John Miller GP, Como, WA
EDITOR Careful what you wish for! These changes, while laudable on their own, might have the consequence of making many simply retire, especially in rural areas.
Dr Andrew Nolan GP, Launceston, Tas
Have your say
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became clear that most of my colleagues were either too busy, uninterested or knew no more than me. Now, more than 95 % of my consultations are medical and acute. Quandaries are frequent. Additionally, the board fails to understand or acknowledge the large amount of reading someone like me performs on a regular basis. AFP, MJA, Australian Doctor, NPS MedicineWise, Science and Therapeutic Guidelines are all read weekly. I feel anything but“ professionally isolated”.
Dr Solly Zilman As a solo GP in an accredited practice, I take lots of medical students. They tend to keep me in touch with what management protocols the ivory tower specialists are advocating this season. I also learn a lot about how much I know by explaining things to them. Likewise, I learn a lot from the specialists to whom I refer my patients, as would any GP. This weird idea that solo GPs are somehow disadvantaged and isolated must come from people who have never been solo GPs. What will they come up with next— special hoops to go through for left-handed doctors?
Dr Stephen Scholem
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