AMA Victoria continues to advocate for greater recognition of doctors' professional time as part of our broader work to address the increasing cost of doctoring, administrative burden and regulatory complexity facing the profession.
Recent advocacy highlights the breadth of this issue, from witnessing legal documents to completing Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCDs).
Most recently, we highlighted these issues in comments to The Age regarding declining numbers of Victorian Justices of the Peace. As doctors are among the authorised witnesses frequently asked to witness signatures and certify documents, AMA Victoria President Dr Simon Judkins noted that these requests can add to the growing administrative demands on doctors, particularly in general practice, and that improving access to Justices of the Peace and other authorised witnesses warrants consideration.
We have also written to the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages requesting a meeting regarding its online guidance for completing Medical Certificates of Cause of Death. Completing an MCCD is an important professional and medicolegal responsibility involving clinical judgement and administrative time. Despite several rounds of correspondence, we remain concerned that, while the Registry has amended its website, the current wording may still discourage practitioners from exercising their lawful professional discretion regarding fees for completing MCCDs. This is despite the Registry acknowledging that the absence of an express statutory authorisation is not the same as a legal prohibition.
We are not advocating that practitioners routinely charge fees for completing MCCDs. Rather, doctors should retain a clear and unambiguous discretion to determine whether it is appropriate to charge a fee, without being discouraged from doing so by government guidance that may imply such fees are impermissible. More broadly, we consider the issue emblematic of a wider concern that doctors' professional time, expertise and medicolegal responsibilities are too readily assumed to be available at no cost.
We have proposed a meeting with the Registry to discuss both clarification of the current online guidance and longer-term opportunities to better recognise the professional time involved in completing MCCDs.
Recognising doctors' professional time is an ongoing advocacy priority. We will continue pursuing practical measures that better recognise that time and reduce unnecessary administrative burden.