Before she retired this week with her $120,000 pension for life, NSW health minister Reba Meagher was the driving force behind the mandatory dob-in-a colleague legislation for doctors, which is now being expanded nationally.
The law is ostensibly aimed at preventing a repeat of the situation in Bega, where it is alleged that doctors failed to raise the alarm when they saw patients inappropriately treated by deregistered doctor Graeme Reeves.
The AMA has already described the proposals as a knee jerk reaction that may backfire and discourage doctors from referring impaired colleagues for treatment (link).
And we have yet to hear why the doctor was hired without anyone checking his credentials, which showed he had previously been deregistered.
Meanwhile in the UK there is a another ongoing saga of a doctor being dobbed in and suspended – but in this case for using the word ‘shit’ on a private online forum for doctors to describe the architect of the UK’s disastrous medical training scheme (link).
Unfortunately for the junior Scottish surgeon, his scatalogical remarks were spotted by a friend of the senior medical figure and she dobbed him in to his employers, who subsequently suspended the doctor for unprofessional behaviour.
“There is a point at which the personal abuse of individuals reaches such viciousness that it is unprofessional,” she said.
But the suspension has caused outrage amongst other medical bloggers in the UK who say it amounts to bullying by senior doctors in relation to matters that have nothing to do with patient care. They say doctors should not be penalized for expressing an opinion in private.
It’s not an isolated case – as another UK doctor points out (link), one of her colleagues recently committed suicide (link) after comments she made on the same internet forum were referred to the medical board for investigation.
Is there a lesson in all this? If you want to foster more openness, don’t crate a climate of fear and intimidation.
