The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has released a position paper advocating for new measures that prevent medical practitioners who haven’t completed accredited surgical training from including ‘surgeon’ in their title.
According to the college, in Australia use of the term ‘surgeon’ is not restricted to specialists who have completed Australian Medical Council (AMC)-accredited training in surgery.
This has resulted in numerous practitioners advertising themselves as surgeons, but RACS believes tighter regulations would prevent false assumptions among patients about the level of training received by some practitioners performing their surgery.
The move follows an assessment by the government’s COAG Health Council in 2019 that found the lack of regulation around the term ‘surgeon’ “can cause confusion among members of the public”, RACS said.
In its position paper, the college outlined that only those registered in specialties for which the relevant AMC-accredited training program includes a significant surgical component should be able to use ‘surgeon’ in their titles.
“RACS’ position is not about ‘protecting the turf’ of RACS’ Fellows,” the college said.
“Implementing RACS’ position would mean that medical practitioners who have not demonstrated their surgical expertise by completing an AMC-accredited training program in surgery, ophthalmology or obstetrics and gynaecology, would be prevented from advertising themselves to the public using the term ‘surgeon’.”
In addition, the college said all registered ‘specialist obstetric gynaecologists’ and ‘specialist ophthalmologists’ would be able to use the term in combination with relevant ‘qualifier’ or ‘descriptor’ words, which describe their scope of practice. For example, an ophthalmologist would be able to advertise themselves as an ‘ophthalmic surgeon’.
“The AMC-accredited training programs for the various surgery subspecialty fields, as well as ophthalmology and obstetrics and gynaecology are five or six years at a minimum, on top of a primary medical degree,” RACS said.
“A primary medical degree and five or six years of training in a specialty which includes a significant surgical component provides the physiological, ethical, psychological, pharmacological and medical expertise to safely diagnose, treat and manage surgical patients. This includes knowing the medical conditions that preclude surgery, awareness of associated conditions that will influence surgical management choices, managing appropriate referrals for complex care and performing all aspects of postoperative care including correcting complications.”
Implementing the RACS position would also mean that certain rural GPs who have obtained their qualifications via AMC-accredited courses, which include a surgical component would be able to use the term, but only in combination with the words ‘GP’ or ‘general practitioner’, such as ‘GP surgeon’.
The college hopes restricting use of the title surgeon would also help maintain public confidence in the high standards of the Australian health system.
“RACS believes that restricting use of the term ‘surgeon’ should be accompanied by a public education campaign outlining the training and education required to use the term under the new arrangements,” the college stated.
“We should act now rather than wait for a surgical patient to suffer harm, having incorrectly assumed that the person carrying out the procedure had completed accredited surgical training.”
More information about the position paper can be found here.
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