Thanks to all those people who have supported our cause. We have a long road ahead and we need more people to urge the governments to stop medical bullying.
Bullying is not acceptable in our schools, our workplace and our home. It is time we put a stop to bullying in our health profession.
We have written to Dr Tony Bartone, the President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) about this matter.
In the coming days, we will write an open letter to AHPRA and the Medical Board to address this important issue.
We will lend support to the AMA for slamming the Medical Board's proposal to introduce a 'coercive' code of conduct which would undermine our doctors' autonomy to advocate for their patients' interest.
We recognise that one major source of medical bullying is the abuse of power by people holding high position of authority to coerce vulnerable subjects into accepting unfair treatment or doing things deemed inappropriate, unethical if not downright unlawful.
Often when the victims show any sign of defence / resistance, the perpetrators would then use their immense clout to seriously damage the victims’ career and reputation. And one method commonly used by the perpetrators is making vexatious complaints against the victims to justify their punitive actions taken against the helpless victims.
Examples of vexatious complaints are reporting fabricated adverse events or falsely claiming ‘substandard performance’, ‘inappropriate conduct’ and ‘poor communication’.
Contrary to their calls to stop medical bullying, the comments we hear from you and many others are that AHPRA and the Medical Board appeared to be irresponsible or negligent or incompetent in exercising their official duty to protect and care for our doctors against perpetrators who have committed bullying and/or made vexatious complaints.
The punitive (or retaliatory) action taken by the Medical Board against Dr Gary Fettke for his role in advising his patients to avoid harmful sugar for good health reasons is just one example demonstrating the unprecedented degree of bullying that is simply unacceptable to our society.
AHPRA’s handling of complaints has been reported to drive up doctors’ indemnity premiums, which could push up medical cost to patients and/or force doctors to limit their professional services.
Without urgent measures to reform AHPRA and the Medical Board, we are at risk of seeing our profession becoming more defensive and/or our healthcare becoming more unaffordable, especially for those who can't afford to get a private health cover.
In our upcoming letter to AHPRA and the Medical Board, we will formally ask them to explain that since AHPRA establishment on 1 July 2010,
- how many cases of medical bullying and vexatious complaints have AHPRA identified?
- how many of these vexatious complainants were prosecuted for providing false and misleading information and documents to AHPRA, an act considered an offence under sections 20 and 21 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law?
- how many senior doctors who abuse their position in bullying junior doctors received disciplinary actions by the Medical Board and have their registry noted as ‘bully and vexatious complainants’? and
- how many doctors who were victims of medical bullying were provided support by AHPRA and the Medical Board to help them return to their rightful professional status and career? and
- what are they proposing to do to stop medical bullying?
Please write to us at australianhealthreformgroup@gmail.com to share your thoughts and experience on vexatious complaints, and how it affects you.
We will advocate for you and let our government know the urgency to do more to stop medical bullying.
No doctor should be bullied to commit suicide or to the brink of it.
Our caring doctors deserve protection from professional and psychological harm.