The full report below
Page 21 extract
Other issues of concern
The Board’s telehealth guidelines came into effect on 1 September. They describe good medical practice in telemedicine and acknowledge the important role of telehealth in facilitating access to and delivery of healthcare. The guidelines aim to support practitioners to maintain safe standards of care.
In February, the Board, together with Ahpra and other National Boards, convened a forum addressing issues related to medicinal cannabis. The forum aimed to share information and regulatory intelligence, discuss current risks to the public and optimise collaboration between regulators.
In June, the Medical Board, the Nursing and Midwifery Board, the Pharmacy Board and Ahpra published a joint statement on professional responsibilities for prescribing and dispensing medication. We wanted to address rising concerns that some health practitioners appeared to be putting profit ahead of patient welfare by providing customers with access to a predetermined medicine with inadequate patient assessment and increased risks of unsafe care.
The Board faces ongoing challenges in the coming year, as we design regulatory tools to ensure patient safety protections keep pace with emerging models of care
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Leadership and collaboration to address emerging risk
However, recent trends in healthcare are moving quickly, driven by change and innovation, and there is potential for significant harm to occur that may not get reported. We saw this in the rise of cosmetic surgery in the past few years and, more recently, in newer models of healthcare marketed directly to consumers such as the surge in prescriptions for medicinal cannabis and for semaglutide for weight loss.
Maintaining a balance between access and the safety of emerging models of care that may pose significant risk is a key priority amid a growing number of prescriptions and the emergence of telehealth, online prescribing and direct-to-consumer health services.
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In February, we hosted a forum on medicinal cannabis that brought together health regulators to share information and regulatory intelligence, with the aim of balancing safety with access. Ahpra called this forum together to examine how the responsible regulatory agencies can work together in a rapidly growing field to ensure clarity of roles and use our regulatory tools to reduce harms to the public.
We are part of an expert advisory group on medicinal cannabis with the TGA, and have worked with the TGA to organise discussions with state and territory pharmacy authorities about specific medications and the regulation of new models of care. We also meet with the TGA and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about our respective work on shared issues such as vaping and artificial intelligence.
This cooperative approach is echoed in other areas of our work. In February, we hosted a series of three symposia to explore ways to minimise distress for practitioners who receive a notification. We invited support services, mental health organisations, professional associations, co-regulators and others to collaborate on improving the experience for practitioners.
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Ahpra---Annual-report-2023-24
