The Medical Board of Australia is consulting on a new approach to keep late career doctors in safe practice, with health checks for doctors over 70 among the options being considered. Read more and have your say: https://bit.ly/3LWYLyW
Phil McGeorge
2mo
The Board uses its own “notifications” as its measure of impairment. The assumption is that a doctors health is the cause of the notifications. No evidence is given for this. No explanation is provided as to why notifications for all doctors increased by 2-3 times from 2015 to 2023. Are we to believe that all doctors have become health impaired over that time? There is also no explanation why the current (2023) rate of notifications for younger doctors, exceeds the rate for those over 70 from only 8 years ago. Were the older doctors in 2015 better than the younger doctors are today? Or more healthy? The notifications are a poor measure. Garbage in/garbage out.
Peter Adkins
2mo
I just completed a module as part of my employment on Generational Diversity which examined ageism. The Commonwealth - Age Discrimination Act 2004 is worthwhile reading in view of AHPRA's proposal. https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A01302/2020-09-06/text Part 3 14 Discrimination on the ground of age—direct discrimination 15 Discrimination on the ground of age—indirect discrimination In 2016 the Australian Human Rights Commission released its report, Willing to Work: National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination against Older Australians and Australians with Disability. The Inquiry found that too many people are shut out of work because of underlying assumptions, stereotypes or myths associated with their age. These beliefs lead to discriminatory behaviours during recruitment, in the workplace and in decisions about training, promotion and retirement, voluntary and involuntary. The cost and impact of this is high, for individuals and for our economy https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/legal/legislation#Age
The health check and screening proposed by the Medical Board is very extensive and likely to be very time consuming (see Appendices). Who will cover the cost of this since "Health Screening for Employment" is currently not rebateable under current Medicare arrangements unless the applicant is unemployed. The cost of health screen for an Australian Visa for example is approximately $350, pre-employment screening ranges from $100 to upwards of $500 depending on testing required.
Fiona Lucas
2mo
Absolutely disgusting and disrespectful
Semi Retired at MedITEd Pty Ltd
2moAge discrimination at its worst. Does the Medical Board expect doctors to pay for this? They already treat older doctors practicing part-time unfairly by demanding the same registration fees as those working full-time and expecting the same CPD activity as those practicing full-time. All at a time when Australia is crying out for more Doctors- importing them from overseas and encouraging more Nurse Practitioners and Pharmacists to manage Health Care in this country. Is the Medical Board simply acting as a pawn for the Federal Government?