Good Medical Practice: developing an Australian code.

The draft Good Medical Practice code of professional conduct is now available for public comment and consultation ver the past few years, all medical boards in Australia have issued guidance to doctors about expected standards of medical practice. Most of these documents were adapted from Good Medical Practice, a code of conduct first issued by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom in 1995. 1 Given their shared origin, the various medical board guidelines have much in common, but they are not identical. On behalf of state and territory medical boards, the Australian Medical Council (AMC), through an expert working group, is developing good practice guidelines for the entire nation. This project is now well developed, and a draft Australian Good Medical Practice code 2 is currently the subject of a consultation process with the medical profession and the community. The project deserves the attention of the medical profession. Indeed, the profession' s input is critical, principally to ensure that the proposed standards are realistic and consistent with current good practice. In addition, experience tells us that codes of practice are more likely to be followed when those affected have contributed to their development. A number of questions are likely to cross the minds of doctors. Why do we need a code of practice? Doesn't the Australian Medical Association (AMA) issue a Code of Ethics? 3 Who is drafting the new Code? Why is the community involved? Is this project related to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decision to introduce uniform national registration for all health professionals? Is the new Code to be enforceable, and by whom? The project began before the COAG decision, but the timing now makes it highly likely that the Australian Good Medical Practice code will be adopted as a starting point by the proposed national medical board. A national registration system will need national standards. These standards must reflect the considered views of both the medical profession and the community served by the profession. In effect, the national Code will amount to a declaration to the new national board from the profession and the community about the standards of medical practice expected in Australia. It is not intended to supplant the AMA Code of Ethics. Rather, it extends the principle-based AMA Code into an explicit statement to the community and the profession about standards of practice. The draft Code covers issues in detail, …