Australian doctors are relatively unfussed by medical negligence claims, which are not associated with any significant declines in mental or physical health, a study has found.
Based on figures from the MABEL (Medicines in Australia, Employment and Life) survey, the surprising finding is likely related to Australia’s strong medical indemnity industry and laws which disincentivise speculative litigation, say researchers from the University of Melbourne.
They say it contrasts with overseas research showing litigation was identified by doctors as their most stressful life experience: more so than divorce or the death of a spouse.
And a recent survey of nearly 8000 UK doctors found those recently involved in a lawsuit were twice as likely to report suicidal ideation or moderate-severe depression and anxiety than those who weren’t, they wrote in BMJ Open.
However, previous research had not been able to distinguish between causes and consequences of negligence claims, the authors said.
This was because most earlier studies on the topic were cross-sectional surveys, unlikely the longitudinal MABEL survey, answered by around 15,000 doctors annually until it concluded in 2018.
In the final seven years of the survey, some 885 (5.9%) doctors reported having been sued at least once in their careers, with GPs and male doctors being the most likely to have been through a lawsuit.
But their self-rated health generally did not decline in the year of the claim, nor in any subsequent year, the authors found.
The same was true with their self-rated sense of life satisfaction, which had no significant statistical link with being sued.
“While there are reports of doctors who have died by suicide in the context of medical regulatory investigations, our large longitudinal analysis of doctors in Australia found no association between medical negligence claims and poor doctors’ health,” they wrote.
“This may be because medical negligence claims have less impact on doctors compared with regulatory complaints or investigations.”