Professional Services Review Annual Report 2004–05

• Contents
• Letter of Transmittal
• Director’s report
• 2004–05 Key events at a glance
• 1. Agency overview
• 2. Report on performance
  • Outcome and output structure
  • Performance assessment
  • Final determinations
  • Determining Officer
  • Professional Services Review Tribunal
  • Reasons for requests and referrals
  • Professional Services Review Tribunal cases
  • Federal Court and Full Federal Court cases
• 3. Management and accountability
• Appendixes
• Glossary

2. Report on performance

Determining Officer

The Determining Officer’s role applies to all cases referred by the Commission before 1 August 1999. (For cases referred after that date, the Determining Authority takes the role.) The First Assistant Secretary, Medical and Pharmaceutical Services Division in the Department of Health and Ageing currently holds the position and was appointed ministerially. The Determining Officer makes determinations about practitioners who have been found, by a committee of their peers, to have engaged in inappropriate practice.

In making any determination, the Determining Officer essentially has the same sanctions available to it as the Determining Authority.

During the year, the Determining Officer received the last of the committee reports relating to referrals made by the Commission prior to 1 August 1999. However, as the committee could not complete its investigation, the Determining Officer took no action. (The practitioner had been disqualified from Medicare since July 1998 for failing to produce medical records to the committee. The practitioner has not been registered with the local medical board for a number of years.)

Table 6—Determining Officer cases