President's message: March 2021

Medical Council President Dr John Sammut

I am delighted to bring you a jam-packed issue which I hope you find both interesting and valuable.

As we all know, effective communication with our patients is integral to safe professional medical care. Yet our most recent annual report data suggests poor communication is the second greatest cause of performance-related complaints to the Council. In this issue, we examine informed consent and share tips on how to reduce your risk of a complaint. We also discuss the implications of low health literacy in patients in our article Does your diagnosis get lost in translation?

I am very excited to share an update on our latest podcast episode, via our new podcast home. The latest podcast explores medical records and why they are often at the very heart of complaints to Council. You can view the latest episode and those you have missed on our show page.

Thank you to everyone who completed our readership survey in the last edition. We’ve used your feedback to develop more content to support your professional practice and patient safety. If you missed out and still wish to participate in the anonymous survey, you can do so here. You can also tell us what you think or suggest future story ideas by emailing us.

Dr John Sammut
President
Medical Council of NSW

Our annual report data suggests poor communication is the second greatest cause of performance-related complaints