Public warned about dodgy doctors

The medical regulator has new powers to warn the public about doctors who are a risk to public safety.

Australia’s medical regulator will next week begin naming and shaming doctors who present an immediate and serious risk to public safety.

It will be used when patients might have been exposed to risk of a serious infection, administered expired vaccines and medications or exposed to a non-sterile environment and equipment.

Other examples include warning the public when a person falsely purported to be a trained psychologist or medical practitioner, or performed inadequate medical procedures, or advertised medical procedures for which there is no clinical evidence.

The new power is expected to be used in only a handful of cases each year and is most likely to be used where the practitioner is providing services but is not registered to practice in Australia.

Doctors considered a threat to the public will be publicly named under new powers. Picture iStock

A high threshold will have to be met before a public statement can be made and the person in question will have to be suspected of having committed a criminal offence or be the subject of disciplinary investigation or proceeding.

Secondly, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) must reasonably believe that the person poses a serious risk to patients and that it’s necessary to issue a public statement to protect the public.

The doctor or health professional will first be given an opportunity to make a case explaining why such a statement should not be made.

Where medical practitioners are properly registered in Australia is unlikely the power will be used as AHPRA can already use Immediate Action powers that allow it to suspend or place conditions on a practitioner’s registration.