As we prepare to send off our open letter to AHPRA and the Medical Board this week, two important news yesterday gave us hope that professional regulators would be made accountable for their misconduct by the Court of Justice.
The first news was about Dr Bawa-Garba who was earlier given a life ban from practising medicine by the UK High Court following the prosecution by the medical regulators. On 13 August 2018, the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling of the High Court, stating that the medical regulator was wrong to permanently remove Dr Bawa-Garba from the register. Together with doctors from around the world, we applauded this news as it is grossly unfair to see the way medical regulators penalised doctors without acknowledging the inadequacies of the systems in which they work.
The second news was about the Federal Court of Australia ordering the CFMMEU, a union-cum-regulator in the construction industry, to pay $ 577,500 for unlawful behaviour. Justice Richard Tracey said the court's power to impose pecuniary penalties was a discretionary power and rejected the Australian Building and Construction Commission's submission that they be made. Justice Tracey said the regulator "simply regards itself as free to disobey the law". "The contravening conduct has continued unabated to a point where there is an irresistible inference that the CFMEU has determined that its officials will not comply with the requirements of the [Fair Work] Act with which it disagrees" Justice Tracey said.
We recalled the Tribunal ruling against the Health Care Complaints Commission on 23 July 2018 for wrongfully imposing disciplinary proceedings against Dr Niroshan Sivathasan with allegation of unsatisfactory professional conduct. The Tribunal ordered the regulator to pay cost after the regulator failed to substantiate its action with evidence and reasonable arguments.
We call upon those harmed by AHPRA’s and the Medical Board’s impugned decisions and callous actions to write to us – australianhealthreformgroup@gmail.com – so that we can independently review their case(s) and advocate on their behalf as a group.
We strongly believe that any disciplinary action taken against anyone based on false and misleading complaints (with hidden agendas) constitutes a form of miscarriage of justice.
AHPRA and the Medical Board will be made accountable for their actions under our Australian rule of law, including the National Laws.
Thank you for your ongoing support and keep spreading our mission to all doctors, all healthcare providers, and the Australian public.
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