Practitioner

Informed consent: make it meaningful

Ensuring patients have given their informed consent to a course of medical treatment is integral to safe medical practice and is embedded in everyday language as a doctor. ‘Have you consented the patient?’ is a question many of us have asked or heard. It is a revealing...

President's message: March 2021

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...

Do you know the three Ws of compound medicine?

In recent years there has been an increase in complaints about compounded medicines supplied by community pharmacies. These complaints relate to three W’s – who is making it, where (and in what conditions) is it being made and what exactly is in the compound medicine?...

Support for your wellbeing

The Doctor’s Health Advisory Service (DHAS ) provides a confidential phone back support service with the aim of ensuring every doctor and medical student in NSW has access to healthcare. DHAS Director Dr Timothy West explains how the service supports the mental health...

Leaving medicine? What you need to know about patient records before you do

The decision to leave medicine is never easy but doctors who retire, sell their practice or are suspended still have record-keeping obligations under legislation and best-practice guidelines. This article answers common questions about records management when closing a...

Why are systems struggles impacting doctors and aged care patients?

Reports from the frontline indicate that well-intentioned GPs are drowning in a sea of double handling and mismatched records when it comes to providing medical care to residents of aged care facilities. Many GPs working in this space feel the system is broken and not...
The Medical Council, medical students and regulation How does the Medical Council affect students?
What does the Medical Council have to do with medical regulation? In partnership with the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), we receive and manage complaints about registered doctors and medical students in NSW. We take a holistic case management approach to...

Warning to doctors -Misuse of fentanyl patches

Warning to doctors – misuse of fentanyl patches The NSW Ministry of Health has issued a warning to doctors about the risks associated with fentanyl patch misuse by patients. It is available to read here. More detailed information is available from the Ministry’s web...

Circumstances change, good practice stays the same

From telehealth consultations to outdoor clinics , many of us are having to rapidly adapt the way we’ve been practising for years – and often decades – but while the settings and the tools may have changed, the basics of sound, holistic preventive healthcare have not...

Key messages from our Annual Report 2018/19

In the 2018/19 financial year, the Medical Council received 2,518 complaints about 2,051 doctors – just under 7% of registered medical practitioners in NSW. Complaints cover a variety of issues and can be made by not only the patient involved, but also by their family...

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