Doctor referrals would fail FASEA Standard 3
Doctors who refer patients to pathologists for blood tests would likely breach Standard 3 of the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) code of ethics and this reflects the inappropriateness of the current situation, according to the acting chief executive of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), Phil Anderson.
Anderson has used a discussion around Standard 3 to urge the authority to revisit the code of ethics to make it more fit for purpose, arguing that pathology referrals would come to a halt if the same reasoning were applied to the medical profession.
What is more, Anderson suggested that a starting point for FASEA in developing the code of ethics for financial advisers should have been contrasting it with other professions.
Looking at Standard 3, he said the primary ethical duty in was that, “if you have a conflict of interest or duty, you must disclose the conflict to the client and you must not act”.
“Would pathology referrals need to come to a grinding halt if FASEA Standard 3 applied to doctors?” Anderson said.
“I wonder if FASEA took the time to contrast what happens in other professions before they quickly put in place the final wording of Standard 3 in February 2019. I suspect not,” he said.
“Hopefully with the benefit of time, they will change this Standard and we can all go back to working and living in the real world,” Anderson s
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