Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
8 - The regulation of the medical profession
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the 1997 edition
- Acknowledgments
- About the authors
- Table of cases
- Table of statutes
- 1 Ethical principles for the medical profession
- 2 Ethical and legal responsibilities of medical students
- 3 Communication skills
- 4 Consent and informed decision making
- 5 Confidentiality, privacy and disclosure
- 6 Medical records, reports and certificates
- 7 Negligence, professional liability and adverse events
- 8 The regulation of the medical profession
- 9 Health care complaints systems
- 10 The doctor and sexual boundaries
- 11 Personal health of the doctor: illness and impairment
- 12 Maintenance of professional competence
- 13 Ethics and the allocation of health-care resources
- 14 The Australian health-care system
- 15 The doctor and interprofessional relationships
- 16 Entering and leaving practice and practice management
- 17 Clinical research
- 18 Prescribing and administering drugs
- 19 Diagnosing and certifying death and the role of the coroner
- 20 Births, reproductive technology, family law and child protection
- 21 Termination of pregnancy and related issues
- 22 Withholding or withdrawing treatment in the seriously or terminally ill
- 23 The law and the mentally ill
- 24 The law and courts of law in Australia
- 25 Medico-legal examinations and reports, court procedures and expert evidence
- 26 Other legislation relevant to medical practice
- APPENDIX 1 AMA CODE OF ETHICS – 2004
- Index
- References
Summary
To practise medicine in Australia doctors are required by law to be registered with the relevant state or territory medical board. For convenience, in this chapter the term ‘medical board’ will be used for all the states and the territories, although the name of the first registration body established in Australia, in 1837, is the Medical Council of Tasmania. Also, in this chapter the term ‘state’ will apply to both states and the territories. The addresses and websites of the medical boards are provided in Table 8.1.
The requirements for registration are practically identical in each state. Via the process of ‘mutual recognition’ (explained later in this chapter), a doctor who is registered in one state has an automatic right to be registered in any other state, subject to completing certain procedural requirements and paying the relevant fee. Any conditions or limitations that apply to the registration in the original state will also apply in the second state.
The main purpose of registration is to protect the public. This is achieved through the powers granted to medical boards to:
determine that applicants for registration possess recognised medical qualifications and are of good character
investigate allegations of unprofessional conduct and discipline doctors found guilty
suspend or place conditions upon the registration of doctors whose capacity to practise is impaired by illness, and
in some states, place conditions upon the registration of doctors whose practice performance (competence) is found to be unsatisfactory.
These powers are mostly identical between the states, although some structural and procedural differences exist and there is considerable variation in how complaints made against doctors are handled (see also Chapter 9).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Good Medical PracticeProfessionalism, Ethics and Law, pp. 124 - 144Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010