Expert panel to probe claims of racism by non-white doctors

The Australian College of Emergency Medicine said an advisory group would determine the ‘clear facts of the matter’.

Professor Anthony Lawler, president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, says an expert advisory group will probe allegations of systemic racism by non-white doctors.

The national body that trains specialist emergency doctors has announced it will create an ­“expert advisory group” to investigate claims of systemic racism after it was revealed white doctors were 13 times more likely to pass than their non-white colleagues.

The Australian College of Emergency Medicine president Anthony Lawler said the advisory group would determine the “clear facts of the matter” through a “fair and robust process” and formulate appropriate responses.

“By now, you may be aware of recent media coverage in Australia about a complaint that has been made against ACEM, alleging racial discrimination in the conduct of the college’s assessments,” Mr Lawler writes.

He said the college was taking the confidentiality of complainants “very seriously”.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that 33 ACEM students had filed with the college a detailed report that showed, in the latest cohort, just 6.8 per cent of “non-white” doctors had passed the key clinical exam required to become an emergency specialist, compared with 88 per cent for caucasian doctors.

While numerous doctors, including non-caucasians who were born and educated in Australia, have contacted The Australian with concerns they have been victims of racism, several experts have said while racism may exist in some cases, the ­issues are likely more complex.

High-profile Bangladeshi-born and Australian-educated psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed, who was previously the Australian Medical Association’s head of junior doctors, said he had long heard of allegations of ­racism at ACEM and other specialist doctor schools. The group of complainant ACEM students had earlier approached him for help in the case, but he did not consider racism to be the key cause for the major discrepancy in clinical exam results.

“It is a failure of the college if they are taking people on as trainees but then have such low pass rates for certain groups,” Dr Ahmed said.

“This is actually the key accusation the emergency department doctors should be making instead of ... racism.”

Dr Ahmed said similar problems were seen across all specialist training colleges, though emergency medicine was one of the most pronounced.

In their complaint, the ACEM students said emergency doctors were being paid under $100,000 a year while emergency specialists were paid about $400,000 a year.

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