The federal government has rejected suggestions for a compensation and recourse scheme for doctors who are victims of vexatious complaints to AHPRA.
In May 2017, a Senate inquiry tasked with investigating AHPRA’s complaints mechanism recommended the regulator and national boards develop a framework for identifying and dealing with vexatious complaints. These are defined as groundless complaints made with the primary intent to cause distress, detriment or harassment, and are estimated to comprise up to 1% of complaints against Australian health practitioners.
The Senate inquiry also suggested the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council consider whether recourse and compensation processes should be made available to those subjected to vexatious “claims”.
Its report said many doctors were “deeply concerned about the prevalence of vexatious notifications” being used to bully and intimidate, leading to stress, reputation damage and even job loss. Despite this, deficiencies in the regulatory system meant vexatious claims may not be identified and rejected fast enough, and in such cases “health practitioners are required to expend considerable time, effort and money” defending against them.
But its response to the report the government rejected the idea that Health Ministers consider compensation and recourse processes, saying this could discourage people from making legitimate complaints. It also noted that no funding source for compensation payments to doctors was proposed.
“Where a notification is clearly vexatious, the National Board has the ability under the National Law to take no further action following initial assessment,” the report said.
Bill Madden, special counsel with Carol and O’Dea Lawyers, said he agreed with government’s stance, and doctors should not be left out of pocket if the National Board opted for no further action after determining a complaint was vexatious.