Male doctors more likely to be disciplined for misconduct
Male doctors are four times more likely than female doctors to be disciplined for misconduct, an analysis of professional discipline cases published in the Medical Journal of Australia has found.
Obstetrician-gynaecologists and psychiatrists had the highest rate of disciplinary action, followed by general practitioners.
In a majority of the cases no patient suffered physical or diagnosed psychiatric harm, Mrs Katie Elkin and fellow researchers from the University of Melbourne’s School of Population Health and Law School found.
“These findings indicate that boards and tribunals interpret their public protection role fairly broadly”, Mrs Elkin said.
“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 not sitting back – they are trying to be proactive when professional misconduct poses risks to the community.”
The researchers analysed 485 cases in which doctors were found guilty of misconduct and disciplined by tribunals in Australia and New Zealand between 1 January 2000 and 30 September 2009. They found that about 1 in every 1,500 doctors are disciplined for professional misconduct each year in Australia.
More than nine in 10 (91 per cent) of the cases involved male doctors.
When the figures were adjusted to account for the underlying gender mix of all doctors and the fewer hours worked on average by female doctors, the figures showed that male doctors were still disciplined at more than four times the rate of their female colleagues (91 versus 22 cases per 100,000 registered doctor years).
Sexual misconduct was the most common form of misconduct, accounting for 24 per cent of all cases, followed by unethical or illegal prescribing, which accounted for 21 per cent. Eight per cent of cases involved death and nine per cent physical harm to the patient.
“Improving public understanding of what these cases are about is important,” said Professor David Studdert, a co-author and leader of the research team at the University of Melbourne. “Without that, anecdotes and media reports of selected ‘scandals’ can lead to quite a distorted perspective.”
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association
The statements or opinions that are expressed in the MJA reflect the views of the authors and do not represent the official policy of the AMA unless that is so stated.
CONTACT: Mrs Katie Elkin; 0011 64 21 892 898
Prof David Studdert 0407 083 444
Ms Rebecca Scott 0417 164 791
Media Officer, University of Melbourne