Doctors Fight Expansion of Dob-in-Colleague Law

Doctors plan to fight the national expansion of NSW laws that force them to dob in colleagues whom they suspect pose a risk to patients.

The Australian Medical Association and medical insurers say the laws take a sledgehammer approach to doctor misconduct and could backfire by encouraging practitioners to ignore potentially harmful conduct.

The tough mandatory reporting laws require doctors to report to the Medical Board any peers they suspect of committing sexual abuse, engaging in drug or alcohol abuse or conduct that may harm another person.

Doctors who fail to report a colleague suspected of misbehaviour face punishment themselves.

The Medical Practices Amendment Act 2008 provision relating to Reportable Conduct commenced on 1 October 2008 in response to the so-called Butcher of Bega case, in which former gynaecologist Graeme Reeves was accused of mutilating hundreds of women at two South Coast hospitals, despite being barred from performing obstetric services.

Queensland plans to introduce similar laws, and the Victorian Government has said it would consider the scheme.

The president of the AMA, Rosanna Capolingua, said yesterday she expected the laws would be expanded Australia-wide as part of a national registration and accreditation scheme for health professionals, being developed by the federal and state governments.

She described the NSW laws as a "knee-jerk reaction" to the Reeves case and said the current system, under which doctors have a professional and ethical obligation to report colleagues, was effective.

Dr Capolingua also called for more safeguards for doctors who report a peer, saying whistleblowers were not adequately protected under the new laws.

The medical profession's concerns include the onus it puts on practitioners who may be forced to report colleagues whom they might be treating, for example, for a substance abuse problem.

A medical indemnity forum in Melbourne has heard how the laws would apply to staff in medical insurance firms and health complaints commissions when they came across evidence of doctor misconduct.

Sherrill Nixon
The Sydney Morning Herald