All Medical Continuing Professional Development requirements should be immediately suspended in order to free up doctors’ time to meet the challenges imposed by COVID-19.
The Chief Medical Officer should direct the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) to immediately suspend any compliance regulation of medical CPD for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no evidence that taking this action would adversely impact patient outcomes. To the contrary, the more time doctors have for patients, the better,” Dr Aniello Iannuzzi, Chairman of the ADF said in Coonabarabran, NSW today.
It wasn’t long ago that CPD was the responsibility of individual doctors, facilitated by their medical colleges i.e. it was a medical issue, not a national regulation issue. We still achieved high standards of medicine. Sadly, CPD has now become a doctor’s paperwork nightmare, particularly when demands on patient time are rising daily for frontline medical practitioners.
Constant self-improvement and professional development is a vital part of a doctor’s professional life, but when the requirements become time consuming, onerous and more about compliance than content at a time of long hours for front line doctors, then decisions should be made to eliminate the stress.
Dr Aniello Iannuzzi
Chairman Australian Doctors’ Federation
Mr Stephen Milgate AM
CEO Australian Doctors’ Federation
