The head of the AMA WA has hit back at the suggestion that doctors should tell the police of any patient who might pose a risk to the community – as a way of reducing gun violence.
Dr Michael Page, who was recently re-elected as AMA WA president, entered a war of words with Premier Roger Cook in the wake of the recent murder of a woman and her daughter in Floreat at the hands of a gunman.
Subsequent media reports claimed the shooter had experienced two transient ischaemic attacks earlier in the year and had acted aggressively towards staff during his admission. Claims were made by anonymous health workers that if they had known he possessed firearms, they might have delayed his discharge from hospital.
This prompted the Premier to state that while access to firearms was not in itself a consideration for health professionals, they should inform the police about patients who “present in an emotional or cognitive state which suggests that they may be a danger to themselves or a danger to someone else.”
Writing in a blog, Dr Page said the Premier had accused him of “responding to headlines” when he went to the media to argue that it was unfair and unreasonable to expect health workers to alert police to every patient who might pose a risk to the community.
“Cognitive and emotional disturbance is, as we all know, extremely common in healthcare settings, and there is no validated tool to determine which patients might act violently in the future,” Dr Page wrote.
“In the extremely rare instance that a patient makes a specific threat of violence to someone else in the presence of a doctor, of course a doctor might have a duty to breach confidentiality and report the threat.”
Concern about new rules
Dr Page wrote that he was also concerned about the current review of the Firearms Act 1973 (WA), with new requirements under consideration for mandatory health assessments to be completed by medical practitioners for all new and existing firearms licence holders.
“While no doubt we will be assured that protections will be afforded for medical practitioners who do not flag any health-related impediments to a firearms licence being granted or renewed in the event that the licence holder subsequently commits a violent act, we will need to exercise extreme caution in how we take those assurances,” he said.
“We must also ensure that politicians and the public understand that doctors do not have crystal balls to predict patients’ future behaviour, and seeking to blame doctors for a patient’s violent behaviour will not be reasonable.”
Dr Page said the domestic violence crisis needed a whole of community approach, and doctors had a significant role in identifying, treating and supporting victims of domestic violence.