Guidelines
The AMDS program guidelines outline the responsibilities of participating doctors and medical deputising services. We made some changes to the guidelines in August 2021, including:
- requiring services to provide on their website maps, lists or search functions of the areas they can reliably and consistently service
- requiring services to provide an event summary or consultation notes to a patient’s regular general practice
- clarifying the use of online bookings
- clarifying the use of advertising for an AMDS service
- prohibiting services from paying incentives to general practices.
Read more about the changes and why we made them.
For doctors
Doctors must comply with the program guidelines. This includes:
- submitting all necessary paperwork
- having a current Level 1 Advanced Life Support qualification
- responding to compliance issues we or the provider raises
- providing evidence of participation in a college-led fellowship program.
For medical deputising services
AMDS service providers must comply with the program guidelines. This includes:
- not offering incentive payments to a general practice
- not marketing their services directly to consumers, as patients seeking after-hours care should contact their usual general practice for advice
- only offering services that are not already offered in daytime general practices
- operating an Australian-based call centre.
Compliance
We monitor the compliance of participating doctors and service providers and investigate any complaints we receive.
Where we determine there has been a breach of the AMDS program guidelines, we will ask the service provider to formally respond. We will then work with them to achieve compliance.
Where serious and ongoing breaches have occurred, we may terminate a service provider’s participation in the program.
If you think someone has breached the guidelines
If you believe a doctor has breached the AMDS program guidelines, you should talk to the service provider in the first instance.
If you believe a service provider has breached the guidelines, you can report this. We treat all reports confidentially.
For privacy reasons, we do not disclose the outcome of a complaint.
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