The Deregistration Board?
Naming organisations can be tricky. Is it better for example, to call an organisation to tackle incontinence “The Incontinence Foundation”, or “The Continence Foundation” - the former reflecting an individual’s actual condition, the latter an aim, or desired outcome?
Cancer-associated organisations share this dilemma, and there’ve been both ‘Anti-Cancer’ councils and Cancer councils over the years.
In the same vein, a colleague wants to rename his state medical board – the organisation tasked with registering doctors for practice – the Deregistration Board after a recent encounter.
His problems began with advice from Medicare his patients were no longer eligible for rebates because he wasn’t registered as a medical practitioner. This came as a shock, but it turned out he hadn’t received, and therefore hadn’t paid, his last registration bill. Not currently in private practice, the rebate issue wasn’t a big deal, but indemnity certainly was.
A frantic call to the NSW medical board met with a stony, bureaucratic response. Yes, the bill had bounced, marked “Not at this address”, but rather than put in a call or two to track down my colleague – a specialist in a discipline of dire shortage – the board simply advised Medicare to stop his patient rebates. End of story.
At 3pm on a Friday afternoon with a weekend of rural hospital work ahead of him, my friend was keen to sort this out with a credit card over the phone, but again no luck. We only register people before 2pm, he was told. Ring back next week.
Noting that the top message on the home page of the New South Wales Medical Board says the board 'has a statutory responsibility to protect the health and safety of the people of NSW', my colleague wondered whether the medical board was more interested in deregistering doctors than registering them.
As well as protecting patients from dangerous doctors, wouldn’t it be in everyone’s interests – doctors and patients alike – to support safe doctors and make registration easier rather than harder?
Comment here.
Cancer-associated organisations share this dilemma, and there’ve been both ‘Anti-Cancer’ councils and Cancer councils over the years.
In the same vein, a colleague wants to rename his state medical board – the organisation tasked with registering doctors for practice – the Deregistration Board after a recent encounter.
His problems began with advice from Medicare his patients were no longer eligible for rebates because he wasn’t registered as a medical practitioner. This came as a shock, but it turned out he hadn’t received, and therefore hadn’t paid, his last registration bill. Not currently in private practice, the rebate issue wasn’t a big deal, but indemnity certainly was.
A frantic call to the NSW medical board met with a stony, bureaucratic response. Yes, the bill had bounced, marked “Not at this address”, but rather than put in a call or two to track down my colleague – a specialist in a discipline of dire shortage – the board simply advised Medicare to stop his patient rebates. End of story.
At 3pm on a Friday afternoon with a weekend of rural hospital work ahead of him, my friend was keen to sort this out with a credit card over the phone, but again no luck. We only register people before 2pm, he was told. Ring back next week.
Noting that the top message on the home page of the New South Wales Medical Board says the board 'has a statutory responsibility to protect the health and safety of the people of NSW', my colleague wondered whether the medical board was more interested in deregistering doctors than registering them.
As well as protecting patients from dangerous doctors, wouldn’t it be in everyone’s interests – doctors and patients alike – to support safe doctors and make registration easier rather than harder?
Comment here.
posted by ozdocblog at 3:07 PM
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