AMA Submission on changes to the National Law
The AMA has provided a submission to state and territory health ministers on proposed changes to the National Law for health practitioners in relation to sexual misconduct.
The AMA has provided a submission to state and territory health ministers on proposed changes to the National Law for health practitioners in relation to sexual misconduct.
The changes will apply to all 16 regulated health professions, including medical practitioners, once enacted.
When health practitioners have been found to have engaged in sexual misconduct the proposed changes will enable the permanent publication of the practitioner’s full regulatory history (not just that relating to sexual misconduct) on the Ahpra website. The changes will also provide greater protections for notifiers of sexual misconduct.
The AMA’s submission makes it clear that the AMA does not condone in any way conduct that breaches the trust that the community has in their medical practitioners.
Patients need to know that their practitioners will practise in a way that justifies their trust and the very high respect that the community places in them.
In assessing the health ministers’ proposals, the AMA considers that the following principles need to be applied:
- patient safety and trust in their practitioners is of paramount importance
- patients subjected to sexual misconduct need to be safe in being able to report the conduct they have been subject to
- the operation of the National Scheme needs to ensure the rights of both patients and practitioners are respected
- sanctions against practitioners need to be proportionate and pertinent to the misconduct
- the processes and systems in place to handle complaints of sexual misconduct must be sensitive to the notifier and practitioner, timely, balanced and robust, and must also be carefully calibrated to minimise the potential for vexatious complaints.
The submission also calls on health ministers to ensure the threshold for triggering the permanent publication of the practitioner’s regulatory history is clear and in proportion to the seriousness of the practitioner’s conduct.
The AMA submission also recognises the need for greater support being provided to people who experience professional misconduct of a sexual nature from a health practitioner – noting that reporting such conduct can itself be traumatising.