ANZCA Bulletin June 2011 - Australian and New Zealand College of ...

News
New National Health
Performance Authority
Australia’s Health Ministers have
reached in-principle agreement on
legislation to set up a new National
Health Performance Authority to
monitor hospital performance.
Under the deal, the watchdog will
report underperforming hospitals to
the states and territories, and give
them 45 days to fi x problems before
going public.
The agreement is subject to fi nal
sign off by the Council of Australian
Governments in July. More information
is available at the Department of
Health and Ageing website.
Changes to ANZCA
accreditation
ANZCA will undergo a single
accreditation process from next year
as a medical council branch advisory
body covering New Zealand and as an
Australian Medical Council accredited
specialist college in Australia.
Previously, the medical councils in
each country have accredited ANZCA
separately and at different times.
The Medical Council of New
Zealand (MCNZ) and the Australian
Medical Council (AMC) recently signed
a memorandum of understanding to
conduct joint reaccreditations for all
Australasian branch advisory bodies.
The change will see the next
reaccreditation period for ANZCA in
New Zealand move to next year from
2014, to coincide with that for ANZCA
in Australia from 2013.
The new accreditation process
will take into account the different
requirements for each country, such
as cultural competence requirements.
New postdoctoral
reference group
The National Health and Medical
Research Council has invited all
institutions administering NHMRC
grants to nominate representatives to
participate in a new reference group for
early to mid-career researchers.
The aim of the group will be to
provide feedback to the NHMRC on
issues of relevance to postdoctoral
researchers.
Further information can
be found at www.nhmrc.gov.au.
Introducing telehealth
From 1 July 2011, patients using
telehealth facilities located in general
practices, eligible residential aged
care facilities and Aboriginal medical
services and other facilities, will be
able to “see” specialists without the
time and expense involved in travelling
to major cities.
The Federal Government has
committed to providing Medicare
and Department of Veterans’ Affairs
rebates and incentive payments for
telehealth as part of the Connecting
Health Services with the Future
initiative.
The telehealth initiative introduces
11 new Medicare Benefi ts Scheme
(MBS) items for video consultations
provided by specialists, consultant
physicians and psychiatrists. These
new items will allow 55 existing
MBS attendance items across these
medical specialties to be undertaken
by video conference. In addition, 23
new MBS items have been developed
to enable medical practitioners, nurse
practitioners, midwives, Aboriginal
health workers, and practice nurses
to provide clinical assistance at
the patient end during the video
consultation with the specialist, when
such assistance is clinically necessary.
More information is available at
www.mbsonline.gov.au/telehealth.
For further information on the relevant
Medicare items please contact the
Australian Society of Anaesthetists.
New Therapeutic Goods
Administration website
The Therapeutic Goods Administration
has revamped its website, promising
easier access to authoritative
information about the safety of
medicines and medical devices. The
TGA is expected to increase the use
of email alerts and continue to improve
search functionalities throughout
the year. Parliamentary Secretary
for Health and Ageing Catherine
King said the revamp followed the
announcement of a comprehensive
review of the way in which the TGA
communicates its regulatory processes
and decisions to improve transparency.
More information is available at
www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/
publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr11-ckck013.htm.
The website is at
www.tga.gov.au.
Complimentary diaries
Fellows and trainees were recently
sent an email asking them whether
they would like to continue to receive
the ANZCA diary.
Over recent years, many have
voiced concern at receiving the
complimentary ANZCA diary, citing
their consideration for the environment
and costs involved in distributing a
product that they do not use in this
age of electronic media.
However, ANZCA is also aware of
a number of Fellows and trainees
who do use the diary. If you have not
responded to the email but would like
to continue to receive the diary, please
contact us at diary@anzca.edu.au citing
your name and fellowship ID number
or telephone Liane Reynolds at ANZCA
on +61 3 9510 6299.
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