Victoria Police did not consult with GPs before introducing a requirement for them to sign off on potential new officers.
A new policy from Victoria’s government has copped criticism from the RACGP, which argues that it will contribute to the already growing issue of GP administrative burden.
The policy in question now has GPs in charge of signing off on aspiring police officer’s mental and physical health.
Consultation with the RACGP over the policy did not occur at all, to the dismay of the college, which has described the political move as “highly problematic”.
“We did receive a letter some months ago saying that there were some changes that could be expected in Victoria, but without really much detail,” RACGP Victoria chair Dr Anita Munoz told The Medical Republic.
“Victoria Police will be meeting with the RACGP next week, but I don’t think that that will change the opinion that we have about the implausibility and the inappropriateness of this proposal.”
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A major reason for the controversy is that these health assessments have medicolegal ramifications, with the checkups not meeting Medicare rebate eligibility criteria.
Medicare currently cannot provide rebates for a service used a pre-employment screening device, with the RACGP predicting no change to this policy any time soon.
“It’s long been recognised that these assessments are paid for privately, and that cost is borne either by the candidate or by the recruiting organisation,” Dr Munoz told TMR.
“If there was an intention to reduce the costs, then we would need to remedy that thinking, because Medicare does not get involved in any pre-employment assessment.
“I wouldn’t be able to encourage my members to engage in this, certainly, unless they had really considered their own medicolegal risk in terms of doing so.”
Medicolegal issues aside, the college has also criticised the potential increase to the GP administrative burden.
“I think it also denotes a lack of understanding of how involved pre-employment medicals are,” Dr Munoz told TMR.
“It is not possible to provide a pre-employment assessment for a workplace where a person could essentially be undertaking almost an innumerable number of tasks and responsibilities.
“For a job that is as important and involves certain risks, that there’s a willingness to be less involved in the recruitment process and hand that responsibility to GPs instead of to their own members, who are much more expert about policing than general practitioners.”
Similar changes to police assessments have happened in other states, with recent changes to firearm licensing processes in Western Australia also meeting with similar criticisms.
“General practitioners do a huge amount of work in in terms of pre-employment assessments and insurance assessments, so I suspect that that is where the idea came from,” Dr Munoz told TMR.
“The issue here really is that they’re asking for general practitioners to a test for psychological suitability, not just now, but into the future.”
