Senior Medical Staff

Appointment Guideline:

All medical practitioners who provide care (including teaching, research and private practice) to Alfred Health patients must have either a formal or locum appointment, with clear delineation of their roles and scope of practice at theparticular campus/es.

Alfred Health uses the approach of formal delegation by the Board to a senior executive who may be advised by a Medical Appointments Committee.

Types of Appointments:

Paid appointments

Alfred Health employee medical practitioners as Full Time, Fractional or Locum specialists.

Initial appointments to the SMS will be for a period of one year, other than in exceptional circumstances and as recommended by the MAC.

Other than in the categories outlined above, subsequent appointments will usually be ongoing, recognising that there may be exceptional circumstances where this is not the case.

Senior medical staff who have ongoing appointments are required to be re-credentialed at least every three years.

Honorary appointments

Honorary medical staff appointees must be credentialed and have their scope of practice (SoP) documented. For Honorary Senior Medical Staff, that means a Recommendation is made to the MAC regarding credentialing and SoP.

Appointees must be recommended by the Unit Head and may be:

• Of eminent status and/ or bring special expertise not regularly required to Alfred Health*;
• Clinical PhD students with specialist qualifications;
• Senior medical staff upon retirement from active practice*;
• Specialists who do not receive payment for public patients, although they may charge
• private patients if applicable.

*Usually have consulting or teaching clinical practice responsibilities only.

Where the appointment period is for longer than one year or the clinical practice responsibilities proposed are other than for consulting or teaching, the appointment must be made on the recommendation of a MAC.

Medical Observership

From time to time medical practitioners who are not employees of Alfred Health request that they attend Alfred Health to observe patient management for a defined period.

A Medical Observer is:

• a person who is medically trained with at least an MBBS (or equivalent) who may or may not have completed postgraduate medical specialty training

AND

• who is seeking observer status within Alfred Health (see delineation of clinical practice responsibilities)
• may or may not be eligible for registration with the Medical Board of Australia.

A Medical Observer may not participate in any patient care responsibilities such as patient history taking or examination, undertaking patient management or clinical procedures and may not document in the clinical record.

Medical observerships are approved for short periods of time, generally less than six (6) weeks.

Please seek advice from Medical Services for requests longer than this, as an honorary appointment may be more appropriate.

An application for a Medical Observer must be made at least 4 weeks before the proposed start date.

Joint/Academic Appointments:

Joint Appointment (or Conjoint Appointment)

An appointment that requires the person to perform formal roles with the University and Alfred Health. The role has a jointly agreed position description and the practitioner is appointed through a joint appointments process (e.g. Professor Directors). The practitioner’s employment contract is usually with Alfred Health. 

Adjunct Appointment

The University offers a practitioner who already holds a clinical appointment with Alfred Health an appropriate academic title. The appointment is made following application and peer review, is time limited and renewed at the discretion of the University. The practitioner’s employment contract is with Alfred Health. 

Academic Appointment

An academic appointment is advertised and an appointment made by the University. Alfred Health contracts with the practitioner for agreed clinical activities. In this case, the Alfred Health appointment is contingent on the continuation of the University appointment

Appointment Process

The relevant Program Director in conjunction with the Unit Head/Director may shortlist applicants according to criteria agreed between them and consistent with the requirements of the position description.

• All short listed applicants must be interviewed.
• The following positions/applicants must be interviewed
  • Applicants for a first/ new substantive consultant appointment with Alfred Health;
  • Unit Heads, for all appointments
• The following positions/applicants may be interviewed or not, depending on the circumstances
  • Locums;
  • Honorary appointees for less than 12 months.
• Interview for subsequent appointment (except Unit Heads) will be at the discretion of the relevant Program Director and CMO.
• A MAC shall review the application and satisfy itself as to the qualifications, professional capabilities and knowledge, rep

Professional references

• Will be obtained in the Alfred Health SMS format in accordance with the relevant policy from at least two professional referees, one of whom has the relevant skills and experience to comment of the applicant’s performance for a 12-month period in the last 3 years.
• A re-appointment assessment or performance review is required from the relevant Unit Head/Director.
• After approval, the Chair will arrange for notification to the applicant of the Health Service’s decision.