HUNTER NEW ENGLAND AREA HEALTH POLICY ON CIRCUMCISION

POLICY DIRECTIVE Ministry of Health, NSW73 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060 Locked Mail Bag 961 North Sydney NSW 2059 Telephone (02) 9391 9000 Fax (02) 9391 9101 http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/

Routine Circumcision of Normal Male Infants - Policy Document Number PD2012_009

Publication date 27-Jan-2012

Applies to Local Health Districts, Speciality Network Governed Statutory Health Corporations, Affiliated Health Organisations, Community Health Centres, Government Medical Officers, Public Hospitals

Audience Clinical, medical, nursing, midwifery, early childhood health, administration

Summary Consistent with PD2009_018, routine circumcision of infant males should not be performed in public hospitals in NSW. Accurate information on the risks and benefits of circumcision must be given to parents and, if undertaken, a competent operator should undertake the procedure.

Distributed to Public Health System, Divisions of General Practice, Government Medical Officers, NSW Ambulance Service, Ministry of Health, Private Hospitals and Day Procedure Centres

Review date 27-Jan-2017

Policy Manual Patient Matters

File No. 11/1512

Status Active

ROUTINE CIRCUMCISION OF NORMAL MALE INFANTS

POLICY PURPOSE To ensure a consistent, evidence-based, state-wide policy approach to the routine circumcision of normal male infants in the NSW Public Health System. It does not relate to cases where there is a clear clinical need for intervention, nor directly to adult male circumcision.

MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Consistent with the advice of the NSW Maternity and Perinatal Committee and the Maternity and Perinatal Health Priority Taskforce, NSW Health endorses the 2010 statement of the Paediatrics & Child Health Division of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) on Circumcision of Infant Males. Information from the RACP for doctors and parents is available at http://www.racp.edu.au/page/policy-andadvocacy/paediatrics-and-child-health.

IMPLEMENTATION Local Health Districts are responsible for ensuring that:

• Routine circumcision of infant males is not performed in public hospitals in NSW.

• Where parents request circumcision for their infant son, they will be provided with accurate, unbiased and up- to-date information on the risks and benefits of the procedure. The RACP Parent Resource is appropriate for this purpose and is available at the RACP website. Parents who request further information should also be referred to the RACP Statement.