Sexual misconduct findings against more than 100 medical professionals have been laid bare following a major change in the law.
A National Law reform now in effect has seen big changes made to the way sexual misconduct findings against doctors and health practitioners are made public.
Previously, the public has only been able to see when a medical professional has active disciplinary sanctions against them – keeping patients in the dark over spent actions.
However, under new rules in, as soon as a medical professional has a sexual misconduct finding made against them, it remains on their public record forever.
This week, a review of records identified 107 practitioners with previous findings against them, which have now been added to the public domain.
Of these cases, 21 are still currently practising, while the remaining 86 appear on a list of cancelled registrations.
But the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) says it is reviewing some 5,000 more as it continues to retrospectively add findings to records.
AHPRA chief executive Justin Untersteiner said publishing sexual misconduct findings on the public register empowers patients to make informed choices about their care.
“Sexual misconduct by registered health practitioners is an unacceptable breach of trust that undermines public health and safety,” he said.
“The relationship we have with health practitioners is a special one based on trust . we often go to those practitioners in a state of vulnerability, so when there is a breach it has devastating consequences not only for the patient, but for the system as a whole.”
The first set of findings has also been broken down by state, with New South Wales seeing the largest number of cases, with 35.
Mr Untersteiner added: “Any incident can have a lasting and profound impact. AHPRA has dedicated staff and resources available to support anyone wishing to raise a concern about a practitioner, and I would encourage them to do so.”
The law change applies to all practitioners regulated by AHPRA, including doctors, nurses, dentists, psychologists, pharmacists and physiotherapists.
