POLICY NEWS DECEMBER 2018

New Medical Board guidelines on sexual boundaries

The Medical Board of Australia has released new guidelines – Sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship. These guidelines replace the previous Sexual Boundaries: Guidelines for Doctors.

The new guidelines came into force on 12 December 2018 and apply to all registered medical practitioners in Australia.

Read the Medical Board summary here:

https://www.medicalboard.gov.au/News/2018-11-27-revised-guidelines-trust-the-cornerstone-of-good-medical-practice.aspx

And the guidelines and a video can be found here:

https://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies/Sexual-boundaries-guidelines.aspx

National Training Survey

The Medical Board of Australia will be running a National Training Survey to understand the quality of medical education in Australia.

The MBA want all doctors (including registrars and supervisors) to participate.

The Guiding Principles are quality improvement, safety and confidentiality,  a focus on training, reflection and feedback, easy online access, transparency via publication of results and participation.

An external provider has been selected and via registration data, it has been determined that there are more than 28,000 doctors identified as ‘in-training’.

So expect a survey sometime in 2019!

Health Professional Online Services – implementation of recommendations

Following the Independent Review of Health Providers’ Access to Medicare Card Numbers, the recommendations continue to be implemented.

The key message: if you have an HPOS and you do not log in for 6 months, your account will be suspended. You’ll also need to update your delegated access every year. That’s as of September 2018 so if you haven’t logged in since then, you need to do so by March 2019.

Read the report and recommendations here: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/organisations/health-professionals/subjects/independent-review-health-providers-access-medicare-card-numbers