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Health professions unite for public safety
Victoria’s doctors, dentists, pharmacists, chiropractors, optometrists and physiotherapists have united to call on the Premier to halt introduction of sweeping changes to the state’s health profession registration system due to start on 1 July 2007.
“All Premiers last month agreed to establish a National Registration and Accreditation system for all health professions which they hope to have in operation by 2008,” AMA Victoria President Dr Mark Yates said.
“Given that decision, we believe it is important for the safety of Victorians that changes to the Victorian system are deferred.
“The State Government seems intent on rolling out these changes irrespective of the risk to patients. These changes will jeopardise the boards’ ability to protect the public.
“To implement major changes to the boards’ processes now and again in 12 to 18 months time will cause enormous administrative workload for the Victorian boards.
“In the space of 18 months the boards will be running four different disciplinary processes and three different registration systems. The workload will be complex and extremely burdensome. The introduction in the new Act of an unfettered right of review of the outcomes of an investigation – a right accorded only to the complainant, not the practitioner –will add to the workload - the review process alone could almost double the caseload in the Medical Board.
“The risk of a repeat of the Queensland Dr Patel tragedy in Victoria will be very real with the boards managing such complex transitions not once, but twice.
“There is no justification for using Victorian patients and health professionals as guinea pigs on such an important issue for the health and safety of the community:
1. The other states are highly unlikely to adopt the Victorian model without major amendment given they each have different systems.
2. The current system can continue to effectively protect the public and guide the professions until the national system is in place.
“The professions’ concern is not about opposing the amendments to the Health Professions Regulations Act now before Parliament.
“Our concern is to ensure smooth implementation with minimal delays, stress and confusion for patients and health professionals under investigation and minimal administrative confusion and burden for the nine health boards.
“Victorian doctors and health professionals provide an extremely high level of care which is valued by the community. Victorian doctors provided more than 63 million episodes of care to patients in 2005/2006. There were 582 complaints received by the medical board - a complaint rate of less than 1 in 100,000 or 0.001%.”
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