With days to go until the deadline for Ahpra to permanently publish sexual misconduct findings, the regulator is still working its way through thousands of cases to determine which fit the criteria.
A high-level review of professional misconduct cases involving health professionals has been examining tribunal decisions from the past 16 years.
A spokesperson for Ahpra told Medical Forum that staff were working through 5000 tribunal decisions that may have a finding involving sexual misconduct, dating back to the start of the National Scheme in 2010.
Sexual misconduct findings are set to be permanently published on the public register by April 10, in line with changes to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.
“This was an initial, high-level review to identify matters that may have a basis of sexual misconduct and therefore needed to be considered under the recent National Law changes,” the spokesperson said.
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The spokesperson said the move to permanently publish these findings would help people make choices that “feel safe and appropriate” for them.
It is understood the total number of registered practitioners who will have sexual misconduct information added to their register entry will be substantially smaller than 5000.
In 2023, a review by ABC News’ Four Corners program found that more than 160 health practitioners practising at the time had been sanctioned by tribunals for sexual misconduct involving patients since 2010.
Ahpra’s general counsel Dr Jamie Orchard reportedly acknowledged the difficulty in determining whether cases have a basis of sexual misconduct at the recent Annual Medico-Legal Congress. This is because tribunal findings often do not explicitly label sexual misconduct.
The National Boards use the Guidance: Sexual misconduct and the National Law document, which includes a page of types of sexual misconduct and examples, to determine whether sexual misconduct was a basis for a tribunal’s professional misconduct finding.
Ahpra’s spokesperson said “National Boards will continue to follow a fair and transparent process when deciding whether to add information to the register, with public safety the primary concern.”
While acknowledging the change may be distressing for “some patients, practitioners and others” they noted that “sexual contact of any kind between practitioners and their patients is never acceptable”.
“The vast majority of registered practitioners share this view and are deeply committed to providing safe, appropriate care,” they said.
The high-level review is being based solely on tribunal findings, matters will not be reinvestigated.
In any new finding of sexual misconduct, doctors and other health professionals will have 28 days to appeal the decision.
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