More doctors facing tribunals since AHPRA chaperone ban
The use of emergency powers to suspend doctors pending formal hearings has also increased
The proportion of doctors ending up before a tribunal after being accused of sexual boundary violations has more than doubled since AHPRA stopped them continuing to work with chaperones.
The Medical Board of Australia brought in sweeping reforms in 2017 in response to a review of the chaperone system.
It concluded that chaperones — used by the board to monitor doctors still under investigation — were failing to adequately protect patients.
As a result, the board placed all sexual boundary allegations in the hands of a new committee and chaperones, called ‘practice monitors’, were abandoned outside of exceptional circumstances,
