The landscape of healthcare in Australia is shifting rapidly. We now are seeing the likes of general practitioners shift into more specialised roles now offering a range of health services including General Medicine, Aged Care, Chronic Disease Management, Skin Cancer Checks and Excisions, Men’s Health, Family Planning, Travel Medicine, Women and Children’s Health, Antenatal Shared Care, Cosmetic Medicine, Musculoskeletal Interventions and Sports Medicine, Bio Identical Hormone practitioners to holistic health practitioners of Integrative Medicine referring to themselves as Holistic doctors.
We have practitioners of general dentistry beginning to utilise orthodontic approaches to treatment in their practices. Physiotherapists utilising HVLA (High Velocity Low Amplitude-manipulative approaches) techniques even though not taught at undergraduate level, to allied health practitioners incorporating 'dry needling' as part of their treatment protocol. This is no different to some practitioners of osteopathic medicine, such as ourselves, shifting our treatment protocol from a general mechanical approach as taught at an undergraduate level to a more specialised area of interest that utilises a regenerative model of medicine as an approach to treating a wide range of musculoskeletal problems.
This landscape has had to shift as we are now living longer, seeing more patients with age related issues of chronic pain and osteoarthritis. As with all practitioners that have diversified into a specialised field, further education has been a requirement and we at this practice are no different and have undertaken extensive post graduate training to be able to deliver these various treatment protocols.
The 14 National Boards regulating registered health practitioners in Australia are responsible for registering practitioners and students, setting the standards that practitioners must meet, and managing notifications (complaints) about the health, conduct or performance of practitioners.
The core role of the National Boards and AHPRA is to protect the public.
This code seeks to assist and support registered health practitioners to deliver effective regulated health services within an ethical framework. Practitioners have a duty to make the care of patients or clients their first concern and to practise safely and effectively. Maintaining a high level of professional competence and conduct is essential for good care.
Practitioners need to obtain informed consent for the care that they provide to their patients or clients.
When adverse events occur, practitioners have a responsibility to be open and honest in communication with patients or clients to review what has occurred.
Minimising risk to patients or clients is a fundamental component of practice.
Maintaining a high level of professional competence and conduct is essential for good care.
Good practice involves:
- recognising and working within the limits of a practitioner’s competence and scope of practice, which may change over time
- ensuring that practitioners maintain adequate knowledge and skills to provide safe and effective care
- when moving into a new area of practice, ensuring that a practitioner has undertaken sufficient training and/or qualifications to achieve competency in that area
- Must be able to demonstrate continuing professional development standards are being met and full disclosure of the scope of practice to the organisation that is responsible for providing professional indemnity insurance, which is a requirement of registration
So, at this practice the most basic fundamental principle always taken into consideration whenever considering any treatment protocol is:
"Minimum input, for a maximum effect and do the patient no harm.."
it is he who directs his steps”
And, even though we do encounter occasional criticism by some medical practitioners and orthopaedic specialists,'as practicing outside the scope of osteopathic practice', we find ourselves in a position where those very patients, who have even consulted with some of those practitioners, arrive at our office because that system of medicine has either let them down or failed them.
Often being a last resort for many patients we discuss their expectations and if reasonable implement a treatment protocol for the best possible outcome. The worse possible outcome may be no change/improvement at all.. We aim to not over service patients, but tend to see them over a long time, as this is more a realistic model of how a regenerative or better yet, preservative medicine model works.
Having practiced musculoskeletal medicine for 20+ years you will find our group of practitioners open, honest and direct who know their own limitations and work within a very strict scope of practice undertaken at a post-graduate level.
In undertaking any orthobiological treatment there is a strict protocol which is followed for patients who are considered for this treatment modality. This protocol is monitored under the guidance and professional supervision of a medical practitioner working within this scope of practice.