We have been inundated with stories from people telling us about how they have been bullied by vexatious complainants and how AHPRA & the Medical Board unfairly punished them.
Recently, the Australian Doctor and Medical Observer published three articles:
- 'My world fell apart' - doctor describes her blind fear when AHPRA came knocking
- Meet the former HCCC investigator calling for reform
- Surviving complaints: AHPRA responds to doctor outcry
If you can’t access these articles, you can request a copy from us by writing to australianhealthreformgroup@gmail.com
Mr Martin Fletcher, CEO of AHPRA, reassured the doctors that:
Despite this reassurance, we heard that the majority of AHPRA officials have no medical background, while the Medical Board continues to maintain that vexatious complaints are rare. Importantly, we continue to hear that doctors under investigation are not being treated humanely.
We read about the amount of stress doctors have to go through tolerating this bullying saga while the regulators relentlessly kept tormenting their victims until they succumbed to this mental torture. As we come to know, some would rather commit suicide than to endure this kind of torture.
Together with numerous published reports, the irony is that there appeared to be no effective solutions on the horizon yet.
But we are determined to change this.
We wrote to the AMA about our petition.
We applaud the recent news from the AMA following the decision by the Medical Board to back down on its plan to publicly name doctors who had been under investigation, regardless of whether any adverse finding had been made. We support AMA’s recent slamming of the Medical Board for attempting to introduce more ‘coercive’ code of conduct.
Dr Tony Bartone, the President of the AMA eloquently said:
“The AMA finds it difficult to comprehend that medical practitioners who are named in a tribunal procedure are offered less protection from discrimination than a person who has served a prison term.”
If you are a member of the AMA, we urge you to bring this up with the AMA. If you felt your MDO is not supportive of your case, we urge you to contact the AMA or us.
Because we recognise the psychological impact on doctors, how isolated they might have felt being ostracised, how their well-deserved reputation and career could be ruined permanently at a stroke of a pen by AHPRA & the Medical Board, and how at risk they could have been on the verge of depression, self-harm and suicide, we shall not sit idly by and let our caring doctors suffer or die in vain.
Importantly, we care for people who have been victimised. We can offer you peer-counselling, support and advocacy if only we hear about you. We can organise people with medical qualifications and extensive knowledge about bullying to provide you valuable support & counselling that you need.
If you are affected by medical bullying, or know someone affected by it, we want to reach out to you immediately. All it takes is an email to us at australianhealthreformgroup@gmail.com.
Don’t battle this alone. Contact us for help. We will stand by you.
We like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the 1700 people who have supported us in this petition which will go to our new Health Minister soon.