President's message

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2024. Autumn has arrived and with the colder weather there will be increased demand on doctors throughout the season. I urge you to treat your own health with the same care you give your patients.

Looking after yourself is also a feature of our article ‘Receiving a complaint. Where do you go from here?’ With statistics suggesting this will happen to most doctors at least once in their career, we provide some clarity on processes and support structures during this stressful time.

Our latest podcast discusses telehealth and provides some fascinating insights. See more on this below – I encourage you to find time to listen.

Dr Jennifer Kendrick AM
President
Medical Council of NSW

Listen to our latest podcast with our host Dr Penelope Elix and guests, Professor Anne Tonkin AO (President, Medical Board of Australia) and Dr Michael Wright (Chief Medical Officer at Avant Mutual). They discuss the MBA’s telehealth guidelines, patient safety and asynchronous care and good practice tips when delivering virtual consults.

Next time, we’ll be exploring how doctors and pharmacists can work with each other to ensure patient safety when it comes to prescribing and dispensing.

Make sure you subscribe to our podcasts via Spotify, Apple or your favourite platform. 

Being the subject of a complaint to a regulator can be highly stressful for a doctor. Knowing a little about the processes when a complaint is made, and what the NSW Medical Council and the Health Care Complaints Commission do initially can help. We also share top tips about what to do if you are notified a complaint has been made, including support available to you.

Forward dating prescriptions 

The Ministry of Health’s Pharmaceutical Services Unit has expressed concerns about some NSW medical practitioners forward dating prescriptions. When a prescription is given, it’s a record of the decision made to use this medicine and the guidance provided to the patient at that time.

NSW laws require prescribers to ensure the date recorded on a prescription is the actual date on which a prescription is issued.

If you intend for a prescription to be dispensed at a future date, this must be clearly stated on the prescription itself, such as including the notation 'do not dispense before (a certain future date)'. Find out more by visiting the Pharmaceutical Service Unit's prescribers page.

Regulation at work

Where do you find published decisions about doctors in NSW?

NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal decisions

Recent Tribunal decisions, including disciplinary action by the Health Care Complaints Commission can be found on the NSW Case Law website (NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal occupational division). The Health Care Complaints Commission also posts summaries of published decisions on its website.

Professional Standards Committee decisions

Published Medical Professional Standards Committee decisions can be found on the AustLII website.

New South Wales Medical Professional Standards Committee decisions 

Not sure what a Medical Professional Standards Committee is? Find out more here.

News bite

The Cultural Safety for Health Professionals Portal

The Cultural Safety for Health Professionals Portal supports health professionals by providing easy access to high quality, relevant cultural safety information for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. 

Our most popular articles

Read the most popular articles published by the NSW Medical Council over the last year.

• Telehealth changes are here: What you need to know
• Iron infusions – 5 things you can do to avoid a complaint
• Recalls and reminders: Do you know your obligations?
• Building a culture of care: Separating fact from fear in mandatory notifications
• ‘Confidentiality trumps everything’: how to maintain patient privacy when communicating with family members

Read these articles and many more in the Good Practice section of the NSW Medical Council website.

If you have any comments or feedback on this issue or have suggestions for future articles or content , please send us an email.