On Call/Call-Back
25% of VMOA survey respondents indicated they believed ACT Health were applying “new rules”. The issue had been raised with Dr Peggy Brown, who had written to the VMOA indicating no new rules were are being applied, but a tighter scrutiny of the existing rules.
Dr. Carney requested the committee to compare the terms for callback in the VMO contract, with the interpretation of those terms by Rosemary O’Donnell, Executive Director Division of Medicine.
The Executive Director had responded to queries concerning call-back claims.
- Whereas the contract allows a call back attendance when on call, or when not on call but responding to a request, the Executive Director has limited Callback to the On Call Doctor.
- Whereas the contract allows call-back in response to a request, the Executive Director has articulated the criteria as “an explicit request made by medical officer asking you to attend to a patient’s clinical need”.
- Whereas the contract does not mention notation the Executive Director insists that payment for call-back would not be made unless there is clear documentation in the patient’s medical notes.
The ACT Health spokesperson, although conceding the criteria for call-back did not necessarily apply only to a doctor rostered on call, said the addendum to the criteria for callback by the Executive Director, although “might have been better put”, was within appropriate administrative practice.
The ACT Healthspokesperson said that he would report to the committee before the next meeting to give clarity to the On Call rules.
Nonetheless, ACT Health adhered to the criteria as written in the VMO contract. The spokesperson said, that the scenarios that were to be prepared by Mr. Thompson, showing typical situations for call-back, were shortly to be distributed to the relevant executives before tabled at the VMO Committee Meeting
Ward Administration.
There were many situations where a VMO would engage in administrative practice for the benefit of public patients, which was completely separate from a concept of day-to-day patient care.
In matters of Chronic Internal Medicine, to maintain the smooth running of the service, there frequently were heavy administrative duties, and the patients would not be in the hospital at the time
In Surgery and Anaesthesia, there were instances where a VMO would do administrative duties to maintain the smooth running of the service.
The ACT Health spokesperson said that there was only one VMO who claimed these practices, but it was pointed out by the AMA president, that the practices continued but were amortised in VMOs claim for Ward rounds and other duties.
This amortisation would be difficult in some disciplines, where extensive time (for example the whole morning) could be taken up in meetings and other administrative practices for the smooth running of the service.
The spokesperson indicated that these were non-remunerative practices, and the issue could be presented as a new contract issue in the forthcoming contract discussions.
