📚In aesthetics, there’s often temptation to supersede another doctor. Supersession is when a doctor takes over the care of a patient from another doctor without proper justification and communication.
e.g. “Can you quickly write my HRT script? My gynaecologist is fully booked.”
e.g. “Please won’t you treat my eczema. My dermatologist is so expensive”
📚Giving in to such requests is unethical.
📚Supersession can occur between aesthetics doctors too. Where an aesthetics doctor treats a patient without consulting the previous doctor.
📚The HPCSA ethical guidelines regarding supersession state that a doctor should not take over the care of a patient from another doctor without a valid reason and communication between the two doctors. This applies to situations where the patient has not terminated the other doctor’s services.
📚The rule of Supersession is meant to protect the integrity of the patient-doctor relationship and ensure that patients receive consistent and well-coordinated care. It reduces misunderstanding, unnecessary tests, over treatment and complications.
📚The original doctor should be informed of any treatment or prescription and provided with the reasons for giving it.
📚This may sound like old school medicine where doctors would write referral and feedback notes to each other. But the ethical principles apply just as much today, if not more.
Reference: Paragraph 10, Booklet 2 of the HPCSA’s “Guidelines for Good Practice in the Health Care Professions” Supersession.