According to a new study male doctors are four times more likely to be disciplined for misconduct than female doctors. Most common reason for the discipline was sexual misconduct, accounting for 24 per cent of all cases say researchers. Unethical or illegal prescribing accounted for 21 per cent of misconduct cases, while 8 per cent involved death and 9 per cent involved physical harm to the patient. The study is published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The researchers from the University of Melbourne looked at 485 cases where doctors were found guilty of misconduct and disciplined by tribunals in Australia and New Zealand between 2000 and 2009. They found that about one in 1,500 doctors is disciplined in Australia each year for misconduct. Male doctors were involved in 91 per cent of the cases.
Results also showed that sexual misconduct occurred far more in Australia and NZ than in the US, where studies put the figure at a much lower four to 10 per cent of misconduct cases. The researchers were careful to adjust for underlying gender mix of all doctors and the fewer hours worked on average by female doctors before coming to conclusions.
Results showed that obstetrician-gynecologists and psychiatrists had the highest rate of disciplinary action, followed by general practitioners. The study however indicated that in most cases, patients did not suffer physical or psychiatric harm.
Katie Elkin, one of the researchers said, “'These findings indicate that boards and tribunals interpret their public protection role fairly broadly. 'They were often prepared to sanction doctors irrespective of whether or not the misconduct had resulted in harm to a patient. What this suggests is that regulators … are trying to be proactive when professional misconduct poses risks to the community.” The study's co-author, David Studdert, said it was important for the public to get a better understanding of misconduct cases. “Without that, anecdotes and media reports of selected scandals can lead to quite a distorted perspective,” Professor Studdert said.