Older doctors facing mandatory health checks as complaints surge

Older doctors would be forced to undergo health checks to ensure they can safely treat patients under a crackdown by Australia’s medical watchdog.

The Medical Board of Australia has proposed new health checks for doctors over 70, as it releases data showing medical practitioners in this age group are 81 per cent more likely to be the subject of a complaint compared with their younger counterparts.

Data shows doctors aged 70 and older are 81 per cent more likely to be the subject of a complaint than their younger counterparts.Credit: stevecoleimages

The board’s chair, Dr Anne Tonkin, said doctors were “often reluctant patients” who did not always seek the care they needed.

“We are looking for effective and practical ways to support late-career doctors to stay in safe practice, through health checks that will identify and enable doctors to address any risks that come from increasing age,” she said.

But the Australian Medical Association warned that any mandatory health checks must be fair, evidence-based and not drive doctors into early retirement.

“The AMA will work closely with the Medical Board and consult its members to ensure the balance between protecting the public and avoiding unlawful and unjustified aged-based discrimination is achieved,” federal president Professor Steve Robson said.

He said older doctors had greater experience and played an important role in training and mentoring younger doctors.

“The right to practise medicine well into advanced age is something that’s very important to doctors.”

In a discussion paper to be released on Wednesday, the board, which is overseen by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, detailed three regulatory options for late-career doctors: do nothing, introduce a “fitness to practise” test for doctors 70 and older, or roll out general health checks for doctors 70 and older.

It favoured the third option, saying it ensured patient safety and allowed ageing doctors to remain in control of their careers.

This option would require doctors to undergo general health checks with a GP every three years from the age of 70 and yearly checks from the age of 80.

The results of these checks would remain confidential unless a treating practitioner reported a doctor to the board for refusing to manage risks to patients caused by their ill health.

“Current regulatory measures are failing to detect some practitioners with health issues that are affecting their ability to practise safely,” the paper said. “This is increasing the likelihood that individual late-career doctors will face regulatory action at the end of their careers.”

The frequency of notifications about older doctors has almost doubled over the past eight years, increasing from 36.2 notifications per 1000 practitioners aged 70 and older in 2015, to 69.5 complaints per 1000 in 2023.

The bulk of these complaints related to clinical care, communication and medication errors.

Complaints about doctors in the 70-to-74 age bracket have “jumped disturbingly”, according to the board, rising by more than 130 per cent. Complaints have risen 180 per cent for doctors aged 80 and over.

In comparison, notifications about doctors under 70 increased from 23.4 to 38.3 per 1000 practitioners, or 63 per cent, over the same period.

Psychiatrist Dr Bill Pring, 73, is planning to semi-retire later this year.Credit: Justin McManus

Dr Bill Pring, 73, has been a psychiatrist for 43 years and plans to semi-retire at the end of the year.

He supports a new mechanism to monitor the health of doctors.

“As you get older, a very small number of people are not recognising that they’re not competent enough to keep practising,” said the psychiatrist, who lives in Queenscliff in Victoria’s south.

Pring has a couple of medical conditions and sees his GP four times a year to ensure they do not affect his work. He takes his health seriously and said he had never had any adverse findings made against him.

Credit: Matt Golding

He initially planned to retire in 2020, but decided to keep working because he felt a responsibility for his patients during the pandemic. “We took on extra patients knowing that people were in trouble,” Pring said.

He has spent this year trying to find new psychiatrists for his patients, which is a difficult task due to workforce shortages. He plans to continue offering electroconvulsive therapy to patients on a part-time basis.

The Medical Board first proposed health checks for doctors in 2017, as well as a fitness to practise test. But its previous proposal was met with strong opposition from doctors’ groups and then delayed by the pandemic.

Five per cent of Australian doctors are aged over 70.

The board took regulatory action in 23 per cent of notifications made about late-career doctors, compared with 14 per cent of those made against younger doctors. In many instances, regulatory action was not taken because a practitioner retired following a complaint.

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