SYDNEY - MALE doctors are four times more likely to be
disciplined for misconduct than female medics, according to a new
Australian study which found the biggest cause of complaint was
sexual misbehaviour.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne analysed 485 cases
where doctors had been found guilty of misconduct and disciplined
in Australia and New Zealand between 2000 and 2009.
They found that overall about six in every 10,000 doctors were
disciplined in Australia and New Zealand each year by a tribunal
with the power to deregister them, with male medics making up the
overwhelming majority of cases.
When the figures were adjusted to take into account that there
are fewer female doctors and they work fewer hours on average, male
doctors were found to be four times more likely to be disciplined
than their female counterparts.
Obstetrician-gynaecologists and psychiatrists had the highest
rate of disciplinary action, followed by general practitioners, the
study published in the Medical Journal of Australia showed.
Doctors were most commonly cited for sexual misconduct (24 per
cent), followed by unethical or illegal prescribing (21 per cent).
Eight per cent of cases related to the death of a patient.
-- AFP
