Ahpra---Code---shared-Code-of-Conduct NOTES

Code of Conduct for Health Practitioners - June 2022

Professions Covered

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners
• Chinese medicine practitioners
• Chiropractors
• Dental practitioners (dentists, specialists, hygienists, prosthetists, therapists, oral health therapists)
• Medical radiation practitioners
• Occupational therapists
• Optometrists
• Osteopaths
• Paramedics
• Pharmacists
• Physiotherapists
• Podiatrists and podiatric surgeons

Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners

• Ahpra acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia.
• Respect is paid to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and Elders past, present, and emerging.

About the National Boards and Ahpra

• National Boards: 15 boards regulate registered health practitioners in Australia.
  • Responsibilities:
    • Registering practitioners and students.
    • Setting standards for practitioners.
    • Managing notifications (complaints/concerns).
• Ahpra: Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency works with National Boards to implement the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).
  • The National Scheme operates under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.
• Core Role: Protection of the public.

About This Code

• Developed by 12 National Boards under section 39 of the National Law.
• Purpose: To protect the public.
• Sets standards of professional conduct expected by National Boards.
• Used by Boards to evaluate practitioners’ conduct.
• Practitioners have a professional responsibility to be familiar with and apply this code.
• The code will help individuals understand the behavior they can expect from Health Practitioners.
• Any person or organization can raise a concern about a registered health practitioner by contacting Ahpra.
• Replaces previous codes.

Terminology

• 'Patient' means a person receiving healthcare.
  • Includes 'clients' and 'consumers.'
  • Can extend to families, carers (including kinship carers), and communities as users of health services, depending on context.

Acknowledgements

• Drawn on aspects of the Medical Board of Australia’s Good medical practice and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s codes of conduct.
• Uses the definition of cultural safety developed by the Scheme’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy Group.

Code of Conduct Principles

The principles set out the National Boards’ expectations of the practitioners they regulate.

1. Put patients first:
   • Practise safely, effectively, and collaboratively.
   • Use patient-centered approaches, informed by the best available evidence, to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.
2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultural safety:
   • Consider the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
   • Foster open, honest, and culturally safe professional relationships.
3. Respectful and culturally safe practice for all:
   • Practitioners should understand how their own culture, values, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs influence their interactions.
   • Communicate respectfully and meet privacy/confidentiality obligations.
4. Working with patients:
   • Base relationships on respect, trust, and effective communication for partnership.
   • Maintain professional relationships and provide explanations enabling patient understanding and participation.
5. Working with other practitioners:
   • Good relationships strengthen the practitioner-patient relationship, collaboration, and enhance patient care.
   • Healthcare must be free of discrimination, bullying, and harassment.
6. Working within the healthcare system:
   • Responsibility to contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare system and use resources wisely.
7. Minimising risk to patients:
   • Put patient safety first (including cultural safety).
   • Maintain professional capability through ongoing professional development and self-reflection.
   • Understand and apply the principles of clinical governance, risk minimization, and management.
8. Professional behaviour:
   • Display a standard of professional behaviour that warrants the trust and respect of the community.
   • Practise ethically and honestly.
9. Maintaining practitioner health and wellbeing:
   • It is important for practitioners to maintain their health and wellbeing
   • Seek an appropriate work–life balance.
10. Teaching, supervising, and assessing:
    • Support the teaching, supervising, and mentoring of practitioners and students to develop the health workforce.
11. Ethical research:
    • Recognise the vital role of ethical and evidence-based research to inform quality healthcare and policy development.
    • Conduct research ethically and support the decision-making of research participants.

Introduction

• This code sets out National Boards’ expectations for registered health practitioners’ professional behavior and conduct.
• Practitioners have a duty to put patient care first and practice safely and effectively.
• Maintaining a high level of professional competence and conduct is essential for good care.
• The code covers roles in caring for people who are unwell, helping people to recover, and seeking to keep people well.
• The professional values and behaviors apply to practitioners’ conduct in every setting, including in-person, technology-based consultations, and electronically (e.g., social media).
• The code includes 11 principles of conduct.
• Practitioners will use their professional judgment to achieve the best possible outcomes in practice.

Purpose of the Code

• Provides guidance to practitioners about the National Boards’ expectations of their professional conduct.
• Outlines the conduct that the public can expect from health practitioners.
• Key part of the regulatory framework to protect the public and progress the objectives of the National Law.
• Supports patients’ interests, good patient care, and the delivery of appropriate, effective services within an ethical framework.

Scope of the Code

• Describes and reinforces the professional conduct that most registered health practitioners already demonstrate.
• Provides a framework for professional conduct.
• Supports individual practitioners in providing good healthcare and fulfilling their professional roles.
• Assists National Boards in their regulatory role by setting and maintaining principles and standards of good practice.
• Used when evaluating practitioners’ professional conduct.
• A resource to help enhance the culture of professionalism in the Australian health system.
• A guide to the public and health service users about what good practice is and the conduct they should expect from health practitioners.
• A reference for co-regulatory authorities about the standards of professional conduct that National Boards expect.

What This Code Does Not Do

• Practitioners must understand their legal obligations and act in accordance with the law.
• The code is not a substitute for legislation and case law (e.g., privacy, child protection, medicines, and workplace health and safety laws).
• The law takes precedence if there is any conflict between the code and the law.
• Practitioners must also be aware of and meet the other standards, guidelines, and policies of their National Board.
• Not an exhaustive study of professional ethics or an ethics guide.
• Articulates the National Boards’ expectations about ethical and professional conduct, but not the standards of clinical practice within individual health professions or disciplines.
• Not a charter of rights but focuses on good practice and professional behavior.
• Not intended to address:
  • Disputes between professional colleagues.
  • Employment issues.

Professional Values and Qualities

• Practitioners have a duty to make patient care their first concern and to practice safely and effectively.
• Professionalism embodies qualities including self-awareness and self-reflection.
• Qualities:
  • Good practice is centered on patients.
  • Effective communication.
  • Practitioners must be ethical and trustworthy.
  • Responsibility to protect and promote the health of individuals and the community.
  • Expected to reflect regularly on their practice, relationships, and wellbeing.
  • Duty to keep skills and knowledge up to date.
  • Scopes of practice vary according to different roles.
  • Committed to safety and quality in healthcare.

Substitute Decision-Makers

• Reference to 'patients' also includes substitute decision-makers (e.g., parents, guardians, nominated person, legally appointed decision-maker) for patients who do not have the capacity to make their own decisions.
• Seek advice from the relevant guardianship authority if in doubt.

1. Put Patients First – Safe, Effective, and Collaborative Practice

• Principle 1: Practice safely, effectively, and in partnership with patients and colleagues, using patient-centered approaches, and informed by the best available evidence.

1.1 Providing Good Care

• Patient care is your primary concern.
• Includes:
  • Assessing the patient (history, views, physical examination).
  • Formulating, recording, and implementing a suitable management plan.
  • Facilitating coordination and continuity of care.
  • Recognizing and working within the limits of your skills and competence.
  • Healthcare decisions are a shared responsibility.
  • Respect the rights of patients to make their own decisions.

1.2 Good Care

• Maintaining a high level of professional competence and conduct is essential.
• Includes:
  • Maintaining adequate knowledge and skills.
  • Ensuring sufficient training/qualifications when moving into a new area of practice.
  • Maintaining adequate records.
  • Considering the balance of potential benefit and harm in clinical management decisions.
  • Communicating effectively with patients.
  • Providing treatment options based on the best available information.
  • Practicing within an evidence-based and patient-centered framework.
  • Taking steps to alleviate symptoms and distress.
  • Supporting the right of the patient to seek a second opinion.
  • Responding to adverse events and implementing open disclosure.
  • Consulting and taking advice from colleagues when appropriate.
  • Making responsible and effective use of resources available.
  • Ensuring personal views do not adversely affect patient care.
  • Reflecting on practice and decisions.
  • Facilitating the quality use of therapeutic products.

1.3 Decisions About Access to Care

• Decisions must be free from bias and discrimination.
• Includes:
  • Treating patients with respect at all times.
  • Not prejudicing care because of the patient's behavior, mental health status, or other attributes.
  • Not engaging in any form of discrimination.
  • Investigating and treating patients based on clinical need and effectiveness.
  • Keeping yourself and others safe when caring for patients.
  • Not denying patients access to healthcare if reasonable steps can be taken to ensure safety.
  • Not allowing moral or religious views or conscientious objection to deny patients access to healthcare; provide alternative care options.

1.4 Treatment in Emergencies

• Offer assistance in an emergency, considering your own safety, skills, availability of other options, and the impact on other patients under your care.
• Continue to help until your services are no longer needed.

2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety

• Principle 2: Consider the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their health and cultural safety, fostering open, honest, and culturally safe professional relationships.

2.1 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health

• Recognizes the diverse histories and cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health refers to the social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing of the whole community.
• Understanding the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ health helps inform care.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples bear the burden of gross social and health inequity.

2.2 Cultural Safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

• Cultural safety is determined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families, and communities.
• Culturally safe practice is the ongoing critical reflection of health practitioner knowledge, skills, attitudes, practicing behaviors, and power differentials.
• To ensure culturally safe and respectful practice:
  • Acknowledge colonisation and systemic racism and its impact on health.
  • Acknowledge and address individual racism, biases, assumptions, stereotypes, and prejudices.
  • Recognise the importance of self-determined decision-making, partnership, and collaboration.
  • Foster a safe working environment to support the rights and dignity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

3. Respectful and Culturally Safe Practice for All

• Principle 3: Practitioners should have knowledge of how their own culture, values, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs influence their interactions. Communicate in a respectful way and meet privacy/confidentiality obligations.

3.1 Cultural Safety for All Communities

• Australia is culturally and linguistically diverse.
• Cultural safety and respectful practice are important for all communities.
• To ensure culturally safe and respectful practice:
  • Understand that only the patient and/or their family can determine whether care is culturally safe and respectful.
  • Respect diverse cultures, beliefs, gender identities, sexualities, and experiences.
  • Acknowledge social, economic, cultural, historical, and behavioral factors influencing health.
  • Adopt practices that respect diversity, avoid bias, discrimination, and racism.
  • Support an inclusive environment for the safety and security of the individual patient and their family.
  • Create a positive, culturally safe work environment through role modelling.

3.2 Effective Communication

• Positive professional relationships are built on effective communication.
• Includes:
  • Communicating courteously, respectfully, compassionately, and honestly.
  • Considering the age, maturity, and intellectual capacity of young people and other groups.
  • Being aware of health literacy issues.
  • Taking all practical steps to meet the specific language, cultural, and communication needs of patients and their families.
  • Endeavouring to confirm a patient understands information communicated.
  • Encouraging and supporting patients to be well-informed about their health.
  • Clearly and accurately communicating relevant and timely information to colleagues.
  • Being non-judgemental and refraining from behavior that may be interpreted as bullying or harassment.

3.3 Confidentiality and Privacy

• Ethical and legal obligations to protect the privacy of patients.
• Patients have a right to expect confidentiality.
• To protect privacy and confidentiality:
  • Seek informed consent before disclosing information.
  • Provide surroundings to enable private and confidential consultations.
  • Never access records when not professionally involved or authorized.
  • Ensure all staff are aware of the need to respect confidentiality and privacy.
  • Be aware of the requirements of privacy and/or health records legislation.
  • Be aware of complex issues relating to genetic information and seek advice.
  • Do not transmit, share, reproduce or post any person’s information or images without written and informed consent.
  • Recognise a patient’s right to access information contained in their health records and help them access it.
  • Facilitate arrangements for the transfer or management of health records when closing or relocating a practice.

3.4 End-of-Life Care

• A vital role in helping the community deal with the reality of death and its consequences.
• In providing culturally safe end-of-life care:
  • Understand the limits of healthcare in prolonging life and recognize when efforts to prolong life may not be in the best interest of the patient.
  • Accept that the patient has the right to refuse or request withdrawal of treatment, while ensuring they receive relief from distress.
  • Respect diverse cultural practices and beliefs related to death and dying.
  • Facilitate advance care planning and provide end-of-life care in accordance with any legally valid advance care directive, local policy and legislation.
  • Take reasonable steps to ensure support is given to patients and their families, even when it is not possible to meet their expectations or wishes.

4. Working with Patients

• Principle 4: Basing relationships on respect, trust, and effective communication enables practitioners to work in partnership with patients. Maintain effective and professional relationships and provide explanations that enable patients to understand and participate in their care.

4.1 Partnership

• Requires high standards of personal conduct.
• Includes:
  • Being courteous, respectful, compassionate, and honest.
  • Treating each patient as an individual.
  • Encouraging and supporting patients to be well-informed about their health.
  • Recognizing the power imbalance in the practitioner–patient relationship.

4.2 Informed Consent

• A person’s voluntary decision about healthcare made with knowledge and understanding of the benefits and risks involved.
• Includes:
  • Providing information in a way they can understand.
  • Giving enough time to ask questions and make informed decisions.
  • Acting according to the patient’s capacity for decision-making and consent.
  • Getting informed consent before carrying out any examination, investigation, or treatment.
  • Getting informed consent before involving patients in teaching or research.
  • Getting financial consent by discussing fees.
  • Informing patients of the benefits, costs, and risks when referring them for further investigation or treatment.
  • Documenting consent appropriately, including the need for written consent for procedures which are of higher risk or may result in serious injury or death.

4.3 Children, Young People, and Other Patients Who May Have Additional Needs

• Some patients have additional needs (e.g., children, older people, those with disabilities, those with impaired decision-making capacity).
• Includes:
  • Placing the interests and wellbeing of the patient first.
  • Meeting mandatory reporting legislation to protect groups at risk.
  • Increased advocacy to ensure just access to healthcare.
  • Treating the patient with respect and listening to their views.
  • Encouraging questions and answering them to the best of your ability.
  • Providing information in a way the patient can understand.
  • Recognising the role of parents, carers or guardians.

4.4 Relatives, Carers, and Partners

• Includes:
  • Being considerate to relatives, carers, partners, and others close to the patient, and respectful of their role in the care of the patient.
  • With appropriate consent, being responsive in providing information.

4.5 Adverse Events and Open Disclosure

• When a person is harmed by healthcare (adverse events), practitioners have a responsibility to be open and honest in communication with the patient.
• Includes:
  • Documenting the adverse event or incident.
  • Recognizing what has happened and reporting the incident appropriately.
  • Acting immediately to rectify the problem.
  • Applying the principles of open disclosure and non-punitive approaches to incident management.
  • Explaining to the patient and relevant individuals what has gone wrong, how it happened, how it might affect them, and what is being done to prevent it from happening again.
  • Listening to the patient, acknowledging any distress, and providing appropriate support.
  • Complying with relevant policies, procedures, reporting requirements, and relevant legislation.
  • Reviewing adverse events and implementing changes to reduce the risk of recurrence.
  • Ensuring patients have access to information about the processes for making a complaint or notification or raising a concern.

4.6 Complaints

• Patients have a right to raise concerns about their care.
• Includes:
  • Acknowledging the patient’s right to raise concerns/complain.
  • Providing information about the complaints system.
  • Working with the patient to resolve the issue.
  • Ensuring the complaint or notification does not affect the patient’s care adversely.
  • Working cooperatively with the regulator.
  • Complying with relevant complaints and notifications legislation, policies, and procedures.

4.7 Ending a Professional Relationship

• Ensure the patient is informed adequately of the decision to end the relationship and facilitate arrangements for the continuing care of the patient, including passing on relevant clinical information.

4.8 Personal Relationships

• Recognize the potential conflicts, risks, and complexities of providing care to those in a close personal relationship.
• If circumstances require you to provide care to someone in a close relationship:
  • Keep adequate records.
  • Maintain confidentiality.
  • Carry out an adequate assessment.
  • Get appropriate consent to the circumstances which is acknowledged by you and the patient.
  • Do not allow the personal relationship to impair clinical judgement.
  • Maintain the option to discontinue care at all times.
  • If care is discontinued, ensure referral when necessary/appropriate.

4.9 Professional Boundaries

• Allow you and your patient to engage safely and effectively in a therapeutic relationship.
• Professional boundaries mean the clear separation that should exist between professional conduct aimed at meeting the health needs of patients and your own personal views, feelings and relationships.
• Includes:
  • Recognizing the inherent power imbalance and maintaining professional boundaries.
  • Being clear about the boundaries.
  • Never using your position to establish or pursue a sexual, exploitative, or otherwise inappropriate relationship.
  • Recognizing that sexual and other personal relationships with former patients are usually inappropriate.
  • Do not express personal beliefs to patients in ways that exploit their vulnerability, or that are likely to cause them distress.

4.10 Working with Multiple Patients

• Consider if this mode of treatment is appropriate to the patients involved, including whether it could compromise the quality of care, whether it is culturally safe and whether confidentiality and privacy can be provided.

4.11 Closing or Relocating a Practice

• Includes:
  • Giving advance notice if possible and as early as possible.
  • Facilitating arrangements for the continuing care of all current patients.

5. Working with Other Practitioners

• Principle 5: Good relationships with colleagues and other practitioners strengthen the practitioner-patient relationship, collaboration and enhance patient care. Healthcare must be free of discrimination, bullying and harassment.

5.1 Respect for Colleagues and Other Practitioners

• Good care is enhanced when there is mutual respect and clear communication.
• Includes:
  • Communicating clearly, effectively, respectfully, and promptly.
  • Acknowledging and respecting the contribution of all practitioners involved.
  • Behaving professionally and courteously at all times, including when using social media.

5.2 Teamwork and Collaboration

• Effective collaboration is a fundamental aspect of good practice and teamwork.
• Good patient care requires coordination between all treating practitioners.
• Working in a team or collaboratively does not alter your personal accountability for professional conduct and the care you provide.
• Includes:
  • Understanding your role and the role of other team members.
  • Advocating for a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities.
  • Communicating effectively with other team members or practitioners.
  • Informing patients about the roles of team members.
  • Acting as a positive role model for team members.
  • Supporting students and practitioners receiving supervision.

5.3 Discrimination, Bullying, and Harassment

• There is no place for discrimination, bullying, and harassment in healthcare.
• Practitioners are expected to contribute to a culture of respect and safety for all.
• Includes:
  • Never engaging in, ignoring, or excusing discrimination, bullying, and harassment.
  • Recognizing that bullying and harassment takes many forms.
  • Understanding social media is sometimes used as a mechanism to bully or harass.
  • Doing or saying something about discrimination, bullying or harassment by others when you see it and report it when appropriate
  • Taking appropriate action if you are in a leadership/management role
  • Escalating your concerns if an appropriate response does not occur
  • Referring concerns about discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment to National Boards/Ahpra when there is ongoing and/or serious risk to patients, students, trainees, colleagues or healthcare teams (in addition to mandatory reporting obligations)
  • Supporting colleagues who report bullying and harassment.

5.4 Delegation, Referral, and Handover

• Includes:
  • Taking reasonable steps to ensure that any person to whom you delegate, refer or hand over to has the qualifications and/or experience and/or knowledge and/or skills to provide the care needed
  • Understand that, although as delegating practitioner you will not be accountable for the decisions and actions of those to whom you delegate, you remain responsible for the overall management of the patient and for the decision to delegate
  • Always communicate sufficient, timely information about the patient and the treatment needed to enable the continuing safe care of the patient.

6. Working Within the Healthcare System

• Principle 6: Practitioners have a responsibility to contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the healthcare system and use resources wisely.

6.1 Use Healthcare Resources Wisely

• Includes:
  • Ensuring the services you provide are appropriate, necessary, and likely to benefit the patient
  • Upholding the right of patients to gain access to the necessary level of healthcare, and, whenever possible, help them to do so
  • Supporting the transparent and equitable allocation of healthcare resources
  • Understanding that your use of resources can affect the access other patients have to healthcare resources.

6.2 Health Advocacy

• There are significant disparities in the health status of various groups in the Australian community.
• To advocate for community and population health, use your expertise and influence to protect and advance the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and populations.

6.3 Public Health

• Practitioners have a responsibility to promote the health of the community.
• Includes:
  • Understanding and applying the principles of public health, including health education, health promotion, infection and disease prevention and control, and health screening, and use the best available evidence in making practice decisions
  • Participating in efforts to promote the health of the community, including through effective infection prevention and control measures and appropriate use of antimicrobial medication to minimise resistance
  • Being aware of your obligations in disease prevention, including screening and reporting notifiable diseases.

7. Minimising Risk to Patients

• Principle 7: Good practice involves putting patient safety, which includes cultural safety, first. Maintain professional capability through ongoing professional development and self-reflection, and understand and apply the principles of clinical governance, risk minimisation and management in practice.

7.1 Risk Management

• Includes:
  • Practising cultural safety
  • Understanding the importance of clinical governance and your obligations, where relevant
  • Participating in quality assurance and improvement systems where available
  • Developing and implement risk management processes that identify and minimise risk to reduce harm to patients and/or to respond to adverse events, if you practise in a setting where local systems are not in place
  • Participating in systems for surveillance and monitoring of adverse events and ‘near misses’, including reporting such events to the relevant authority where applicable
  • Ensuring systems are in place for raising concerns about risks to patients, if you have clinical leadership/ management responsibilities
  • Working to reduce error and improve patient safety, including within available systems
  • Supporting colleagues who raise concerns about the safety of patients
  • Taking all reasonable steps to address the issue if there is reason to think that the safety of patients may be compromised.

7.2 Practitioner Performance

• The welfare of patients may be put at risk if a practitioner is performing poorly.
• Includes:
  • Recognising and taking steps to minimise the risks of fatigue, including complying with relevant state and territory occupational health and safety legislation
  • Following the guidance in Section 9.1 Your health if you know or suspect that you have a health condition that could adversely affect your judgement or performance
  • Taking steps to protect patients from being placed at risk of harm posed by a colleague’s conduct, practice or ill health (see Section 9.2 Other practitioners’ health
  • Complying with statutory reporting requirements, including mandatory notifications requirements under the National Law
  • Taking appropriate steps to assist a colleague to get help if you have concerns about their performance or fitness to practise
  • Seeking advice from an experienced colleague, your employer/s, practitioner health advisory services, professional indemnity insurers, the National Boards/Ahpra or a professional organisation if you are not sure what to do.

7.3 Maintaining and Developing Professional Capability

• Maintaining and developing appropriate and current knowledge, skills, and professional behavior are core aspects of good, culturally safe practice.

7.4 Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

• Development of knowledge, skills, and professional behavior must continue throughout a practitioner’s working life.
• Keep knowledge and skills up to date to ensure that you continue to work within your competence and scope of practice.
• The National Law requires practitioners to do CPD.

8. Professional Behaviour

• Principle 8: Practitioners must display a standard of professional behaviour that warrants the trust and respect of the community. This includes practising ethically and honestly.

8.1 Reporting Obligations

• Practitioners have a statutory responsibility under the National Law to report certain matters to the National Boards/Ahpra
• Includes:
  • Being aware of these reporting obligations
  • Complying with any reporting obligations that apply to your practice Seeking advice from your National Board, professional indemnity insurer or other relevant bodies if you are unsure about your obligations.

8.2 Vexatious Notifications (Complaints/Concerns)

• A vexatious notification is one without substance, made with an intent to cause distress, detriment or harassment to a practitioner named in the notification.
• Includes:
  • Raise genuine concerns about risks to patient safety to the appropriate authority (locally and/or the relevant National Board) and comply with mandatory notifications requirements
  • Do not raise notifications (complaints/concerns) that are vexatious or not in good faith about other health practitioners. These claims may be viewed as unprofessional conduct or professional misconduct and the Board may take regulatory action.

8.3 Health Records

• Maintaining clear and accurate health records is essential for the continuing good care of patients.
• Includes:
  • Keeping accurate, up-to-date, factual, objective and legible records that report relevant details of clinical history, clinical findings, investigations, information given to patients, medication, and other management in a form that can be understood by other health practitioners
  • Ensuring that records are held securely and are not subject to unauthorized access. This includes protecting the privacy and integrity of electronic records ensuring that records show respect for patients and do not include demeaning or derogatory remarks
  • Ensuring that records are sufficient to facilitate continuity of care
  • Making records at the time of events or as soon as possible afterwards
  • Recognising the right of patients to access information contained in their health records and facilitate that access
  • Promptly facilitating the transfer or management (including disposal) of health information in accordance with legislation on privacy and health records when requested by patients, or when closing or relocating a practice.

8.4 Insurance

• You have a statutory requirement to ensure that you have appropriate professional indemnity insurance (PII) arrangements in place when you practice

8.5 Advertising

• Advertisements should not be false, misleading or deceptive, use testimonials about clinical aspects of a regulated health service, create an unreasonable expectation of benefit or encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services.
• Complying with the advertising requirements of the National Law

8.6 Legal, Insurance, and Other Assessments

• When you are contracted by a third party to provide a legal, insurance or other assessment of a person who is not your patient, the usual therapeutic practitioner–patient relationship does not exist.
• Includes:
  • Apply the standards of professional behavior described in this code to the assessment;
  • Explain to the person your area of practice, role and the purpose, nature and extent of the assessment to be conducted
  • Anticipate and seek to correct any misunderstandings the person may have
  • Provide an impartial report
  • Recognizing that if you discover an unrecognised, serious health issue during the assessment, you have a duty of care to inform the patient or their treating practitioner.

8.7 Reports, Certificates, and Giving Evidence

• Be honest and not misleading when writing reports and certificates, and only sign documents believed to be accurate
• Take reasonable steps to verify the content before you sign a report or certificate, and do not omit relevant information deliberately
• Prepare or sign documents and reports within a reasonable and justifiable timeframe
• Make clear the limits of your knowledge and do not give opinion beyond those limits when giving evidence, whether in person or in a document.

8.8 Your Work History

• Provide accurate, truthful, and verifiable information about your work history, experience and qualifications, and b. do not misrepresent by misstatement or omission your work history, experience, qualifications or position.

8.9 Investigations

• Practitioners have responsibilities and rights relating to any legitimate investigation of their practice or that of a colleague.
• Seek legal advice or advice from a professional indemnity insurer.
• Includes:
  • Cooperating with any legitimate inquiry into the treatment of a patient and with any complaints procedures or investigations that apply to your work and/or professional responsibilities by providing accurate, honest information when requested
  • Disclosing to anyone entitled to ask for it, information relevant to an investigation into your own or a colleague’s conduct, performance or health
  • Cooperating with any legitimate investigation into alleged offences under the National Law
  • Assisting the coroner when an inquest or inquiry is held into the death of a patient by responding to the coroner’s enquiries and by offering all relevant information.

8.10 Conflicts of Interest

• A conflict of interest in practice arises when a practitioner, entrusted with acting in the interests of a patient, also has financial, professional or personal interests or relationships with third parties which may affect or be perceived to affect their care of the patient.
• Includes:
  • Recognising potential conflicts of interest that may arise in relation to initiating or continuing a professional relationship with a patient
  • Acting in the best interests of your patients when making referrals, and when giving or arranging treatment or care
  • Informing your patients when you have an interest that could affect or could be perceived to affect patient care
  • Recognising that pharmaceutical and other marketing may influence practitioners
  • Not asking for or accepting any inducement, gift or hospitality from companies that sell or market pharmaceuticals or other products that may affect or be seen to affect the way you prescribe for, treat or refer patients
  • Do not offer inducements to colleagues or enter into arrangements that could be perceived to provide inducements
  • Do not allow any financial or commercial interest in a hospital, pharmacy, other healthcare organization or company providing healthcare services or products to adversely affect the way in which patients are treated
  • If you employ other registered health practitioners, do