Tag: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP)

Doctors can object to procedures, not specific patients, under revised religious discrimination bill

RACGP President Dr Harry Nespolon cautiously welcomed the revisions, saying the college will ‘carefully consider’ the revised bill.

News GP

Doug Hendrie

Under the revisions, conscientious objectors could refuse to provide treatments to which they objected on religious grounds, as long as the refusal is a blanket ban.

Speaking at a press conference, Attorney-General Christian Porter said the revised bill means it would be acceptable for a GP to, for example, refuse to ‘engage in hormone therapies’ for transgender patients broadly, but not for an individual patient only.

The revisions are intended to rule out discrimination, Mr Porter said. . . [Full text]

Voluntary assisted dying and the role of the GP

With assisted dying debates taking place in parliaments around the country, the question now is: What does it mean for GPs?

RACGP: newsGP

Doug Hendrie

Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying legislation came into effect in June.

With other states like Western Australia and Queensland now moving to introduce similar laws, the question now is – what does assisted dying mean in practice for GPs?

To tackle the practicalities of the process, SBS Insight host Jenny Brockie facilitated an expert panel at the RACGP’s GP19 conference in Adelaide. . . . [Full text]