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5 days ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
New AHPRA guidelines warn cosmetic doctors to stop advertising with terms such as “doll-maker”, “sculptor”, “artist” or “magic hands”.
Two new guidelines on non-surgical cosmetic procedures will take effect in September: one regarding advertising and one setting standards for all health practitioners similar to those already in place for doctors.
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6 days ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
Only 9.4% of final-year medical students have nominated general practice as their preferred specialty, down from 10.6% last year, with rural generalism falling too.
Internal medicine and surgery are increasing in popularity, while paediatrics and even anaesthesia are falling, according to a yearly survey by Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand, released last week.
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1 week ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
The latest Medicare compliance campaign includes 1100 “early intervention letters” showing GPs details of MBS claims they allegedly lodged while outside Australia, the RACGP says.
In April, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing said it knew of more than 5000 GPs who had breached section 10 of the Health Insurance Act 1973, which requires doctors and patients to be in Australia when a Medicare service occurs.
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1 week ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
Almost 600 GP registrars can get a one-off $40,000 payment this year to lessen the financial pain of leaving the hospital system, the Queensland Government says.
It is the latest State Government effort to address the earnings gap between GP and hospital-based registrars, ahead of a Federal Government registrar payment scheme starting in 2026.
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2 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
The Minister for Health and Aged Care has shot down a suggestion he could raise rebates for non-GP specialists to stop out-of-pocket costs spiralling further out of control.
The average out-of-pocket cost for a non-bulk-billed specialist attendance was $141 in the first three months of 2025, government data show, up from $129 in the same quarter of 2023 and up from $96 in the same quarter of 2020.
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2 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
After more than 30 million claims, more than $1 billion dollars in rebates and much controversy, the Medicare items for COVID-19 vaccination are departing.
The Federal Government says the 13 remaining MBS items will end on 1 July as it moves to “business as usual”, with no mandatory bulk-billing requirements and GPs expected to use typical time-tiered consultation items.
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2 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
Doctors prescribing medicinal cannabis are being urged to think about differential diagnoses, monitoring and exit plans after revelations that 441,000 patients started high-THC cannabis over a six-month period.
The growing concerns over medicinal cannabis prescribing, especially through short telehealth consultations, follow the release of new figures, including that one doctor apparently wrote more than 17,000 high-THC cannabis scripts, again in just six months.
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2 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
Victorian pharmacists with extra training will manage and prescribe S4 drugs for type 2 diabetes, hypertension and allergies through taxpayer-funded consultations, Premier Jacinta Allen says.
Tuesday’s state budget massively expands pharmacists’ powers from the current pilot that covers UTIs, shingles, psoriasis flare-ups and oral contraceptive pill resupplies, which will become permanent.
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3 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
A government-run locum agency is coming “sooner rather than later”, says the NSW Minister for Health as he grapples with a $240 million annual bill for locum staff.
Minister Ryan Park issued the pledge following a 1038-page report on the state’s health system, which suggested that a state-run agency would curb costs and help to eliminate “untenable” bidding wars between public health services to secure locums’ services.
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3 weeks ago | 
ausdoc.com.au | Antony Scholefield
A GP says he had no information about potential signs of a psychotic relapse in his patient who ended up killing half a dozen people at a shopping centre.
Joel Cauchi, 40, killed six people and injured 10 others at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction in April 2024 before being shot dead by police. × If this is your first visit to the new AusDoc website, reset your password here.
