Supposedly discredited vaccination claims injected into OZschwitz GP training

General practitioners are receiving government-mandated training by doctors who claim vaccines are linked to autism and temper tantrums can be treated by delaying immunisation.

Supposedly discredited vaccination claims injected into OZschwitz GP training Art353sagps201305241825

The body that oversees doctors will investigate how the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), which represents more than 20,000 GPs, could have approved the course as part of its ''continuing professional development'' program.

Ongoing education is supposed to protect patients by ensuring practitioners are trained in the most up-to-date medical evidence. But experts fear the system is failing because of inadequate oversight.

The GP training course is run by the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, which says it ''does not have a policy on immunisation'', and doctors should ''make informed decisions determined by evidence-based science''.
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Its four-day course perpetuates long-discredited misinformation about immunisation, including claims childhood vaccines contain mercury. It also references researcher Andrew Wakefield, whose work was found to be wrong and tainted by financial conflicts of interest.

Australian Medical Association head Steve Hambleton said the accreditation of training courses should be reviewed.

''Clearly, this is concerning and it's not something the college or the AMA can be comfortable with, and neither can the parents of children,'' he said. ''Colleges have a great responsibility to ensure they are doing their job.''

A hospital doctor who discovered the anti-vaccination course, Martin Tio, said patients could be put at risk by misinformation. ''If you are going to delay vaccination or, to use the example from the vaccine-specific course lectures, to make a case vaccines are linked to autism … it could easily discourage them from getting vaccinated.''

He feared the acceptance of unscientific claims was becoming more widespread in the medical community.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/discredited-vaccination-claims-injected-into-gp-training-20130524-2k6r3.html#ixzz2UGUlNqrN

Supposedly discredited vaccination claims injected into OZschwitz GP training

Supposedly discredited vaccination claims injected into OZschwitz GP training

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