Revised guidelines, code and policy effective today

17 Mar 2014

Revised guidelines and code of conduct, and a new social media policy, come into effect for all medical practitioners today.

Important information for all medical practitioners in effect from today

Updated National Board requirements come into effect today:

• revised Guidelines for advertising regulated health services
• revised Guidelines for mandatory notifications
• revised Good medical practice (code of conduct), and
• new Social media policy.

The revised codes, guidelines and policy explain the National Board’s expectations of practitioners and have been designed to improve awareness, understanding and compliance.

Practitioners need to know and understand these documents to ensure their practice meets National Board expectations. The National Board released the content of these documents on 13 February on its website, so that practitioners could familiarise themselves before the requirements take effect.

The Guidelines for advertising regulated health services, Guidelines for mandatory notifications and Social media policy were developed jointly by the 14 National Boards in the National Scheme and apply to all registered health professions in Australia.

Good medical practice, the code of conduct for medical practitioners, is also in effect from today and applies to all medical practitioners.

FAQ and additional information

• FAQ (118 KB,DOCX) on the transition from the previous to the new/revised documents.
• FAQ (119 KB,DOCX) on advertising. 
• Document (513 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the previous and revised Mandatory notifications guidelines.
• Document (702 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the previous and revised Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia.

For more information

• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 8708 9001 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200