AHPRA has so fundamentally misunderstood what is needed that a refresh of its leadership is warranted.
The proposed lift in penalties will have no adverse effect on rogue practitioners. Nor will it much help to take them before an AHPRA tribunal,where the most usual punishment is having their practice restricted to that of a general practitioner. That not only grossly denigrates the role of a GP,but is disproportionate to the harm being inflicted on patients.
And installing a “cosmetic surgery hotline” will do nothing to prevent further harm to the public. If those reporting know that there will be no effective action taken,it is unlikely it will even be used.
The idea of developing an “endorsement” for cosmetic surgery training or practice may seem superficially sensible,with AHPRA proposing to ask the Australian Medical Council to administer this. However,there is no evidence that the council has been involved in this proposal. The concept is unworkable,unless only organisations that are already accredited with the council are the training providers.
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The council does indeed have a mandate to protect the community through setting standards for training and for assessing and certifying surgical training programs. So,why are medical practitioners simply able to bypass completing one of these programs and perform major surgery without its accreditation?
To date,all proposed “cosmetic surgery training programs” put forward by non-surgeons have failed to gain AMC accreditation. This should be reason enough to immediately ban from performing surgery anyone who has done only such inadequate training. If someone fails their driving test,we do not license them to drive because their grandmother was a good driver and spent many hours teaching them to drive like her.