Summary
Date: 17 August 2018
The RACGP has submitted to the public consultation on the revised draft of Good medical practice Good medical practice: A code of conduct for doctors in Australia (the code).
The purpose of the code is to describe what is expected of all doctors registered to practise medicine in Australia. The code sets out the principles that characterise good medical practice and make explicit the standards of ethical and professional conduct expected of doctors by their professional peers and the community.
The RACGPs submission focused on the key changes proposed, as well as:
- recognition of general practitioners as the central coordinator of care and the need for this to be reflected in all codes of conduct for of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s (AHPRA) National Boards
- lack of recognition of system and institutional influences
- clinical governance, specifically regarding the responsibility of health professionals to follow up results for tests or services they have initiated