Medical board chair: ‘We’re not out to gag doctors’

Professor Anne Tonkin defends the use of emergency powers to deal with doctors whose comments the board believes threaten public confidence in the profession
Dr Anne Tonkin.

The Medical Board of Australia has defended its use of emergency powers to suspend doctors for making public statements it believes undermine public confidence in the profession.

The debate over the limits to doctors’ free speech has been sparked after the board suspended a GP last year over a long-running series of social media posts he had made.