October 2017

• Latest tribunal decisions 
  • Recent decisions have been published online
• Recent court decisions
  • Court action against a testosterone clinic 
  • Prosecution of a fake GP/psychologist 
• Obligation to provide information to the Board 
  • Doctors have obligations to tell the Board about certain events 
• Registration renewal 
  • More than 97 per cent of practitioners renewed on time 
• News and alerts
  • Members appointed to state and territory medical boards 
  • Final-year medical students can apply online now for provisional registration
• Contacting the Board 

Recent decisions have been published online

There are important lessons for registered medical practitioners from tribunal decisions. The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) refers the most serious concerns about medical practitioners to tribunals in each state and territory. Cases published recently have included:

• inadequate clinical care by failing to deal with urgent blood test results, performing a procedure while the patient was unconscious and in multi-system failure, failing to ensure an ambulance was called in a timely way and leaving an unconscious patient without medical supervision (Medical Board of Australia v Schulberg)
  
  
• leaving an unconscious patient without medical supervision and inadequate medical records (Medical Board of Australia v Duncan), and  
  
  
• falsifying patient records and false claims of overtime and recall (Medical Board of Australia v Hamzah) 

Publication of panel, court and tribunal decisions

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), on behalf of the 14 National Boards, publishes a record of panel, court and tribunal decisions about registered health practitioners.

When investigating a notification, the Medical Board may refer a medical practitioner to a health panel hearing, or a performance and professional standards panel hearing. Under the National Law¹, panel hearings are not open to the public. AHPRA publishes a record of panel hearing decisions made since July 2010. Practitioners’ names are not published, consistent with the requirements of the National Law.

Summaries of tribunal or court cases are published at Court and tribunal decisions on the AHPRA website. The Board and AHPRA sometimes choose to not publish summaries, for example about cases involving practitioners with impairment.

In NSW and Queensland, different arrangements are in place. More information is available on AHPRA’s website on the Make a complaint page.

¹The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, as in force in each state and territory

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Court action against a testosterone clinic

Wellness Enterprises Pty Limited, which traded as the Australian Male Hormone Clinic, has been fined $127,500 plus costs after advertising in newspapers around Australia between February and August 2017 about treatment for testosterone deficiency.

The full page ‘advertorial’ style advertisements made a number of claims about the benefits of treatment, including increased energy, focus, masculinity and strength and the ability to satisfy sexual partners. AHPRA challenged the validity of the claims, citing best available evidence.

This is the first time that a corporation, not an individual health practitioner, has been convicted under the National Law advertising provisions. AHPRA brought the charges under section 133 of the National Law, which requires both individual practitioners and businesses to comply with advertising requirements.

Wellness Enterprises Pty Limited was incorporated on 13 April 2016 and was placed into voluntary liquidation on 12 September 2017.

Read more in the media release: Australian-first with corporation fined $127,500 for unlawful advertising.

Prosecution of a fake GP/psychologist

A court has fined a Victorian woman $20,000 and ordered her to pay costs, after AHPRA successfully prosecuted her for holding out as (claiming to be) a registered medical practitioner and psychologist.

For seven months in 2016, the woman worked at a Victorian ‘wellness retreat’ for people suffering substance abuse, depression, anxiety and other behavioural issues. The woman conducted group and individual psychology sessions and drafted reports for retreat participants for use in workers’ compensation proceedings and court cases. She also liaised with authorities on behalf of her ‘patients', including on family violence matters.

AHPRA prosecuted the case on behalf of the Medical Board of Australia and the Psychology Board of Australia, after her former employer discovered she was not a registered medical practitioner or psychologist. It is an offence under the National Law to purport to be a registered health practitioner if you are not.

Read more in the media release:Victorian woman fined $20,000 for posing as a psychologist and a general practitioner.

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Doctors have obligations to tell the Board about certain events

There are times when doctors are obliged to tell the Board that something has happened. These are called ‘relevant events’ and are detailed in section 130 of the National Law.

Some of the things you are obliged to tell us about within seven days include:

• if you have been charged or convicted of certain offences
• if you no longer have professional indemnity insurance
• if your right to practise at a facility, your Medicare billing rights or your prescribing rights are withdrawn or restricted
• if your medical registration in another country is restricted, suspended or cancelled, and
• if a complaint is made about you to certain organisations such as Medicare, Department of Health or Department of Immigration and Border Control.

A full list of the ‘relevant events’ that you are obliged to tell us about is included in the Notice of certain events form published on the AHPRA website. There are slightly different requirements for registered students.

You must also tell us within 30 days about any changes to your:

• principal place of practice
• contact address, and
• name.

To inform us of a relevant event, please complete the Notice of certain events form.

To update your address and contact details log into your AHPRA account or if the change of personal details includes a name change, use the Request for change of personal details form on the common forms page.

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More than 97 per cent of practitioners renewed on time

We are pleased to report that of the medical practitioners who have renewed their registration, 97 per cent renewed on time, and 99 per cent renewed online.

Medical practitioners with general, specialist and non-practising registration were due to renew their registration by 30 September 2017. If you meant to renew and still haven’t, you can renew in October, but a late fee applies.

Under the National Law, practitioners who do not renew their registration within one month of their registration expiry date must be removed from the national register of practitioners. Their registration will lapse and they will not be able to practise medicine in Australia until a new application for registration is approved.

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Members appointed to state and territory medical boards

New members have been appointed to some state and territory medical boards and other new appointments will be announced soon.

New board members have been announced in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. The following members are appointed: 

The current members of each of the state and territory boards can be found on the website at About us. We publish names as Board members start their terms. New Board members in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory will be announced once Ministers have made appointments.

State and territory boards make decisions about individual medical practitioners in each jurisdiction, within a national policy framework set by the National Board. The National Board has delegated many of its powers so that local decision-makers can respond effectively and in a timely way to local matters, working within a national policy framework.

Each Minister for Health appoints practitioner and community members to the medical board in their state and territory. Appointments are for up to three years and members are eligible for reappointment.

The following members have recently finished their term on the Board:

The following member will finish his term on 31 December 2017:

The Medical Board of Australia thanks the state and territory board members who recently finished their terms on boards and welcomes all the members appointed.

Final-year medical students can apply online now for provisional registration

Medical students who will complete their approved program of study by the end of 2017, can apply now for provisional registration through the online graduate application service.

Students can apply early to make sure they are registered and ready to start their internship as soon as education providers confirm the names of successful graduates with AHPRA.

You can encourage any final year medical students you know to find out more on the AHPRA website under Graduate applications.

There is also more information in this news item.   

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Contacting the Board

• The Medical Board of Australia and AHPRA can be contacted by phone on 1300 419 495.
• For more information, see the Medical Board of Australia website and the AHPRA website.
• Lodge an enquiry form through the website under Contact us at the bottom of every web page.
• Mail correspondence can be addressed to: Dr Joanna Flynn AM, Chair, Medical Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne, VIC 3001.

More information

Please note: Practitioners are responsible for keeping up to date with the Board’s expectations about their professional obligations. The Board publishes standards, codes and guidelines as well as alerts in its newsletter. If you unsubscribe from this newsletter you are still required to keep up to date with information published on the Board’s website.

Comment on the Board newsletter is welcome and should be sent to newsletters@ahpra.gov.au.

For registration enquiries or contact detail changes, call the AHPRA customer service team on 1300 419 495 (from within Australia).

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