Filling out certificates seems to constitute an increasing part of a GP's job. The variety and sheer number of different forms to be familiar with can be difficult for GP registrars starting out in General Practice in Australia. Certificate completion requiring a degree of urgency, can occur unexpectedly in the middle of an already busy day. Certificates can be time-consuming and challenging, especially if you are not exactly sure what your obligations are, and what you can and cannot write!!
In this episode, in response to questions from our GP registrars, we explore the issue of writing "Life Extinct" and "Cause of Death" certificates. We dived into the webinar archive and have combined edited excerpts from two different webinars.
The first half of this episode is taken from a webinar from 2019, presented by one of our very own medical educators, Dr Mike Eaton. This part covers “Life extinct” and “Death certificates” and what you can get paid for!
The second half, ( from 11:41 ) contains edited excerpts from a recent 2023 webinar given by two Medico-legal Advisers with MDA National, Dr Libby Harris and Dr Julian Walter. They presented a webinar for our first-year registrars looking at many common medicolegal problems that GP’s face, and this excerpt about Death Certificates has been extracted from that presentation.
To maintain privacy and full participation by registrars in our webinars, all comments made and questions raised by registrars during these webinars, have been fully edited out.
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Have a great day!
Dr Meryl Nicol
Hypotheticals: The Near Misses that haunt us all - Part 1
“To err is human” and as GP’s, we all make mistakes. In this excerpt taken from our recent Grand Round 2022, we look at the mistakes that we make and look at some key strategies for managing those difficult situations and tips for how to prevent them. It is run in a “hypothetical “ manner where we look at a case and hear from a panel of experts as to what they would do and how they would respond.
On the panel are Dr George Cerchez, a GP experienced in the fields of quality, safety and accreditation, Ruanne Brell, a senior lawyer with Avant, and Dr Ameeta Patel, a Medical Educator with RVTS with an interest in doctors health and wellbeing.
In Part one, we hear about a case of a missed investigation result and what could or should have happened, as well as discussing the issue of open disclosure.
( Apology: As this episode was originally presented online with powerpoint, there is a small section ( 3-4 mins ) of this podcast that isn't ideal as you are missing some information about the fictional medical record. The link to the video version is here )
Resources that may be of interest to you:
“To err is human” and as GP’s, we all make mistakes. This is Part two in a two part series from our recent Grand Round 2022, where we look at the mistakes that we make and look at some key strategies for managing those difficult situations and tips for how to prevent them. It is run in a “hypothetical “ manner, where we discuss a case and hear from our panel of experts
Dr George Cerchez, a GP experienced in the fields of quality, safety and accreditation, Ruanne Brell, a senior lawyer with Avant, and Dr Ameeta Patel, a Medical Educator with RVTS with an interest in doctors health and wellbeing.
In this excerpt, we hear about a solo doctor in a small town making a mistake by giving a child an antibiotic that they had an allergy to. We discuss small town issues, team dynamics, getting away from a “dobbing-in” culture, the normalisation of deviance and lots more!!
We strongly recommend you listen to Part one before listening to Part two!
Resources that may be of interest to you: