Doctors who make vexatious complaints about other health professionals will face disciplinary action including possible loss of registration, under new AHPRA guidelines.

The regulator has unveiled plans for identifying and punishing time-wasters, who it says are responsible for roughly 1% of the 10,000 notifications it receives annually.

It says it will deem any complaint to be vexatious if it lacks substance and has been made with the intention of causing “distress, detriment or harassment” to its subject.

According to AHPRA, while rare, these complaints have an outsize impact, both on the physical and mental health of recipients — but also on regulators which must divert resources to investigate them.