General practitioners could soon be getting calls from people wanting to make an appointment for a Firearms Authority Health Assessment (FAHA).
The recent overhaul of WA firearms laws saw the creation of legislation which requires those seeking a firearms license to have a health assessment and existing firearms license holders to be assessed at least every five years.
The new legislation, which is aimed at enhancing and supporting public safety by bringing in more stringent requirements, comes into effect on March 31.
To manage demand on general practice, notification of FAHAs for existing firearm authority holders will be staggered throughout the next five years.
The assessment is made up of two parts, a self-assessment completed by the applicant and a medical assessment completed by the GP.
The applicant should complete the self-assessment form and bring it to their appointment as well as a list of any prescribed medicine they are taking, any corrective lenses or hearing aids or prosthesis that they wear.
The doctor’s role is to review the self-assessment form and also conduct a medical assessment of the applicant.
WA Police have created guidance notes for health practitioners which outline the main details of the assessments.
It states health practitioners should advise patients if a medical condition, treatment or behaviour could impact their ability to safely handle a firearm.
It also warns GPs that “patients may fear the possibility of restrictions, or loss of their firearm authority and may be hostile towards the health practitioner conducting the FAHA”.
AMA(WA) President Dr Michael Page said this was a concern that GPs had expressed and had the potential to impact on whether GPs chose to carry out the assessments or not.
“If you’re in a small town and someone asks you to assess their fitness for a firearms license, you provide an assessment, whether it’s positive, negative or somewhere in between, and then ultimately they are denied a firearms license, the patient might assume that it was the doctor’s report that led to them being denied,” he said.
“If that’s what occurs, at the very least that might disrupt or undermine the doctor patient relationship.”
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GPs are not obliged to carry out FAHAs, so they are able to decline a request.
At the conclusion of the medical appointment the doctors are required to provide the result of the firearm authority health examination to police.
WA Police do not receive any medical information, only whether the applicant meets or does not meet the firearm authority.
There is no Medicare item number for the assessments as they are not covered by Medicare and there is also no legislated fee for the assessment, so individual GPs or medical practices are able to set their own fees.
When carrying out a FAHA, there are three possible outcomes from the assessments including meeting the criteria, meeting the criteria with conditions and does not meet criteria.
Conditional requirements may include conditions such as, glasses must be worn, hearing aids must be worn, or medication must be taken as prescribed.
The outcome of an FAHA will not necessarily determine whether a firearms license is issued.
According to the guidance notes, a patient having a disability would not automatically preclude an individual from being medically fit to possess and use a firearm.
“If the physical limitations of the disability can be mitigated to enable safe use of the firearm, the disability should not preclude a person from being granted a firearm authority on medical grounds,” the notes state.
Patients aged 80 years of age and older will need to be reassessed annually to keep their firearms license. For older patients, health practitioners are advised to place greater emphasis on assessing those functions that typically deteriorate with age, such as balance, cognition and hearing.
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