Medical register changes ‘treat doctors worse than sex offenders’, prominent doctors warn
The changes take effect in April.
Based on AusDoc comments this week, the medical profession believes health ministers have crossed a line.
Ministers have tasked AHPRA with listing serious sexual misconduct findings — a tribunal finding of professional misconduct linked to sexual behaviour — forever on the public register for all health professionals.
The policy, which takes effect in April, applies retrospectively to the beginning of the National Law in 2010.
Clearly, the outrage from doctors is not about excusing misconduct. The question is whether doctors are being treated more harshly, on a lower standard of proof, than criminal sex offenders.
