Three years on: changes in regulatory practice since Independent review of the use of chaperones to protect patients in Australia

Abstract

In October 2019, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) commissioned this ‘Three years on’ review, following my 2017 report, Independent review of the use of chaperones to protect patients in Australia (‘the chaperone review report’ or ‘the report’). Key conclusions in the report were that ‘Patients, practitioners and the public deserve prompt, thorough, fair and consistent action in the interim period while the truth of sexual misconduct allegations is established. Interim restrictions must be workable, acceptable to patients, and adequate to protect the public.’ 1 ‘The use of chaperones to protect patients in the interim situation – while allegations of sexual misconduct are investigated – should be replaced by gender-based prohibitions and suspensions.’2 A raft of 28 recommendations (‘the recommendations’) were set out in the report. Ahpra and the MBA announced, in April 2017, that all the recommendations would be adopted, and in August 2017 reported ‘significant progress’ in implementation. The purpose of the current review is to assess the progress over the past three years, specifically: 1) what has been achieved since the report? 2) what has been the impact of implementation of the recommendations? 3) are chaperones / practice monitors now being imposed only in exceptional cases? 4) what recommendations have been implemented partly or not at all, or too broadly? 5) have there been unintended consequences from implementation of the recommendations? 6) how are notifier and practitioner voices being reflected in regulatory processes and decisions? 7) what further changes in regulatory practice would be beneficial?