NDIS investigators who deal with GP clinics should have a “strict code of conduct”, the AMA says, in response to accusations that investigators bullied GP clinic staff.

In August, the Mount Gambier Hawkins Clinic in SA asked the NDIS for $21 to cover the cost of printing a patient’s medical records.

The NDIS refused to pay and sent investigators to confront the practice to warn it faced a $13,000 fine if the records were not handed over for free.

The investigators also said the practice — the 2019 joint RACGP practice of the year — could be compelled to deliver the report in person to NDIS offices in Melbourne or Adelaide under the NDIS Act, practice manager Dale Beatty said.