Plan to stop dangerous doctors hiding behind secret negligence payments

DOCTORS may be forced to tell authorities within seven days if they make a secret compensation payments for negligence. Here’s why.

DOCTORS may be forced to tell authorities within seven days if they make a secret compensation payments to an injured patient under proposal by Australia’s governments.

A push to end confidential payments to stamp out dangerous and negligent medical practitioners has also raised the prospect of indemnity insurers being forced to disclose settlements to Australia’s health watchdog.

NEW VICTORIAN LAWS TO EXPOSE DANGEROUS DOCTORS AND SECRET PAYMENTS

SECRET $10M PAYOUTS IN BACCHUS MARSH HOSPITAL BABY TRAGEDY

BACCHUS MARSH DOCTOR SURINDER PARHAR PAID $10,500 TO DISTRAUGHT MUM AFTER BABY DEATH

Dr Surinder Parhar, former head of obstetrics at Bacchus Marsh hospital where he and other practitioners had a long history of confidential settlements before a cluster of 11 potentially avoidable baby deaths was uncovered. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Proposals to increase transparency of the medical profession have been raised in a consultation paper released by the COAG Health Council, among overhauls called for in the wake of the Bacchus Marsh baby deaths scandal.

Seventeen matters relating to maternity staff at Bacchus Marsh hospital are still being dealt with by the Australian Health Practitioner Agency, more than three years after the cluster of baby deaths was found.

Under current rules, practitioners can enter into confidential settlements to prevent claims of negligence becoming public without having to inform authorities charged with protecting patients.

As Australia’s governments examine wider reforms of the nation’s medical oversight mechanisms, Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said it was time to lift the veil so practitioners across the country could no longer hide behind confidential settlements.

“Patients put faith in their practitioners, and have every right to know whether their doctor has been liable for past mistakes,” she said.

“We need a national approach and a national law that requires practitioners to disclose to patients any history of medical negligence.”

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy says practitioners should no longer hide behind confidential settlements.

Under the most far reaching proposal from COAG, health practitioners would have to report negligence settlements or judgments made against them to their medical board within a week of signing off on the arrangements.

Similar disclosure rules already exist in the USA, UK or Canada to ensure patients know when their practitioner has been found liable for damages as a result of medical negligence.

COAG has also asked for feedback on watered down options such as requiring doctors already under investigation to notify authorities if they have made negligence payouts, or making no change.

After receiving notifications about 101 separate matters stemming from Bacchus Marsh Hospital’s maternity services following the 2015 baby deaths scandal, AHPRA this week confirmed it had finalised 84 complaints relating to 38 practitioners.

Half of the For the practitioners were cleared of their matters without the need for regulatory action.

However, six have received cautions, five have conditions limiting their registration, and five

were referred to a panel hearing or the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Review submissions will accepted until the end of October.