How much ‘offending’ Medical Board of Australia Report December 2019

December 28, 2019

The Medical Board of Australia statistics for the last quarter of 2019 make for interesting reading.  In particular workforce distribution, overall ratio psychiatrists vs general population is 1: 5635

The lowest ratio is the ACT with 1:5000, the highest ration is in the Northern Territory 1:8562. The other interesting data is about notifications.  Out of a total medical workforce of 119,926 there were 5359 (4.5%) notifications in 2018/2019, of which 27% lead to

 

Medical Board of Australia – Registrant data

Reporting period: 01 July 2019 to 30 September 2019

Table 1.1 Medical practitioners – registration type by state or territory Registration types Registration subtypes ACT NSW NT QLD SA TAS VIC WA No PPP Total General 802 12,966 596 8,560 2,754 769 10,008 4,195 914 41,564 General (Teaching and Assessing) 10 12 1 3 11 2 39 General (Teaching and Assessing) and Specialist 1 1 General and Specialist 1,034 18,035 544 10,863 4,329 1,221 14,699 4,954 780 56,459 Specialist 200 2,273 131 2,580 635 249 2,214 1,584 552 10,418 Provisional 123 1,541 91 1,333 448 108 1,407 768 89 5,908 Limited Area of need 4 53 18 79 27 24 213 70 2 490 Postgraduate training or supervised practice 35 703 21 275 182 96 495 199 38 2,044 Public interest 0 Teaching or research 11 5 2 10 4 3 35 Non-practising 30 759 9 306 157 52 554 201 900 2,968 Total 2,228 36,352 1,410 24,013 8,535 2,522 29,611 11,977 3,278 119,926

Speciality name

Field of specialty practice

ACT

NSW

NT

QLD

SA

TAS

VIC

WA

No PPP

Total

Psychiatry

74

1,174

27

803

310

76

1,106

368

89

4,027

Population Ratio psychiatrists vs population

366,900 1:5000

7,317,500 1:6,232

231,200 1:8562

4,599,400 1:5728

1.658.800 1:5,351

511,000 1:6724

5,640,900 1:5100

2.366.900 1:6431

22,692,600 1:5635

Medical Practitioner notifications

• 5359 notifications 2018/2019 = 4.5% of the workforce
• 27% of notifications lead to further regulatory action = 1446 or 1.2% of the workforce
• Of this cohort of 1446, there was no action taken in 73.8% i.e. 1067

 

Amongst the 5359 notifications

 

339 were mandatory notifications

234 were notifications re professional standards

169 were complaints against medical practitioners re criminal offences, almost 95% related to title and practice protection

 

What is a ‘Mandatory Notification’?

According to the Medical Board of Australia website

 

Mandatory Notification

All registered health practitioners have a professional and ethical obligation to protect and promote public health and safe healthcare.

 Health practitioners and their employers, as well as education providers, also have mandatory reporting responsibilities under the National Law.

Education providers, registered health practitioners and their employers must tell us if they have formed a reasonable belief that a registered health practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes notifiable conduct.

Notifiable conduct by registered health practitioners is defined as:

• practising while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs 
• sexual misconduct in the practice of the profession 
• placing the public at risk of substantial harm because of an impairment (health issue), or 
• placing the public at risk because of a significant departure from accepted professional standards.

The threshold for a person or organisation to make a mandatory notification is high. This means they need to have a reasonable belief that a practitioner has behaved in a way that constitutes notifiable conduct and that their belief is based on reasonable grounds.

Mandatory reporting exceptions for health practitioners

There are specific exceptions to mandatory reporting for all practitioners in Australia that relate to the circumstances in which the ‘reasonable belief’ is formed, for example in the medico-legal context.

In Western Australia, there is no legal obligation for treating health practitioners to make mandatory notifications (raise concerns) about patients (or clients) who are also health practitioners in one of the regulated health professions.

 

 

On 170 occasions immediate action was taken by the Medical Board to restrict or suspend the registration of a medical practitioner as an interim measure.

 

Of the 1446, 5.8% conditions on registration        = 84

3.6% caution or reprimand                                          = 52

0.5% cancellation or suspension of registration   =   7 (0.005% of all medical practitioners)

 

Comparing this data with that for Psychologists

Speciality name	Field of specialty practice	ACT	NSW	NT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	No PPP	Total
PSYCHIATRY		74	1174	27	803	310	76	1106	368	89	4027

Psychology board 2018/2019 statistics

• 37,783 psychologists
• Up 3.9% from 2017/18
• 5.1% of all registered health practitioners
• 0.6% identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• 80.0% female; 20.0% male
• 535 notifications lodged with AHPRA1
• Australia-wide, including Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA) in NSW and Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) in Queensland data, 741 registered psychologists – or 2.0% – had notifications made about them
• 518 notifications closed
  • 10.0% had conditions imposed on registration or an undertaking accepted
  • 10.8% received a caution or reprimand
  • 1.2% registration suspended or cancelled
  • 8.5% referred to another body or retained by a health complaints entity (HCE)
  • 0.2% surrendered registration
  • 69.3% no further action taken
• Immediate action taken 20 times
• 69 mandatory notifications received
  • 50 about professional standards
• 142 psychologists monitored for health, performance and/or conduct during the year
• 144 cases were being monitored at 30 June
  • 28 on grounds of conduct
  • 16 for health reasons
  • 31 for performance
  • 18 prohibited practitioner/student
  • 51 for suitability/eligibility for registration
• 123 criminal offence complaints were made and 109 closed
  • 105 new matters related to title protection
  • 3 to practice protection
  • 13 to advertising breaches
  • 2 to other offences
• Matters decided by a tribunal: 13
• Matters decided by a panel: 3
• Decisions appealed: 5

Most common types of complaints

Clinical care	Documentation	Confidentiality	Communication	Behaviour	Other
24.7%	12.7%	11.0%	10.7%	10.3%	30.7%

 

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