Three Day Seminar Sounds Out Ethical Healthcare Issues

Three Day Seminar Sounds Out Ethical Healthcare Issues

A conference held by Independent Audiologists Australia and Independent Audiologists New Zealand will address complex regulatory and ethical concerns around professionalism and independence and the ability to deliver a sustainable multidisciplinary hearing healthcare for the future.

Healthcare practitioners, researchers and policy makers will debate the ethics of independence when product sales form part of clinical recommendations.

“Patients and the community invest a lot of trust in health practitioners. We assume that competence is checked and practice standards are supervised. We take it for granted that our interests as patients will always be placed first. Sadly, sometime patients are harmed by incompetent practitioners, and financially exploited by others who place their own business interests first. This seminar will tackle important and topical interests, which matter for audiologists, other health practitioners, and the public."

Professor Ron Paterson, New Zealand Parliamentary Ombudsman and former Disability Commissioner

Convened by Independent Audiologists Australia and Independent Audiologists New Zealand, the presenters are internationally recognised medical and legal experts: Professor Paul Komesaroff (Monash University), Associate Professor Ian Kerridge (University of Sydney) Professor Grant Gillett (University of Otago) and Professor Ron Patterson (University of Auckland).

Key topics include: the healthcare professions and industry, conflicts of interest, vertical integration, online availability of products and services, and regulation in the context of globalisation.

“Audiology - unlike physiotherapy, optometry, dentistry - is not a registered health profession in either Australia or New Zealand. Anyone can sell hearing aids, and it may be difficult for the public to tell the difference between a qualified practitioner and a non-qualified one. Patients have to be very sure they are getting qualified practitioners and that they get a choice of technology – not one that is being pushed by a particular manufacturer-owned clinic, or a device that is sold “on commission” due to agreements between a clinic and a manufacturer, or to meet sales targets. People who are not regulated, who have no code of ethics, who have no complaints procedure should not be fitting hearing aids. To obtain a hearing aid is not simply to buy a device and be done with it; it is a treatment that usually requires several visits as the brain adjusts, and adjustments are made to the aid. So-called “self-regulation” is problematic in audiology, as there is increasing presence at the level of representation between Government and audiologists of very large and powerful commercial interests. This may not be in the best interests of audiology standards, or in the best interests of the New Zealand consumer of audiological services.”

Jeanie Morrison-Low, Independent Audiologist

Independence Matters: Professionalism In Healthcare – a three-day interactive seminar 15-17 May 2015, Wellington.

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