To the Editor: The medical profession in Australia has 91 648 registrants and represents 16.7% of the total of 548 528 health practitioners. However, complaints (known as notifications) about doctors are disproportionate. In the 2011–12 financial year, there were 4001 notifications regarding medical practitioners, representing 52.7% of the 7594 total notifications to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.1 Looked at another way, there was an annual rate of notifications concerning individual medical practitioners of about 4.4%.
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- 1. Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Annual report 2011–12. AHPRA, 2012. http://www.ahpra.gov.au/News/2012-11-01-annual-report.aspx (accessed Oct 2013).
- 2. Medical Board of Australia. Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia. http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Policies.aspx (accessed Oct 2013).
I worked for the MBA as a member of the Queensland Medical Interim Notification Group from May to October 2013. I have no current relationship with the MBA other than as a registered medical practitioner.