The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) said efforts to uncover and act on sexual misconduct in the healthcare system have seen a sustained jump in reports to authorities as well as the number of practitioners facing regulatory action.
New data reveals 841 allegations of boundary violations, including sexual misconduct, were made to Ahpra in 2022–23. The allegations relate to 728 registered health practitioners. None of the complaints were against optometrists.
In a news release, Aphra said the latest data are almost 50% higher than the number of boundary violation notifications reported two years ago, when Ahpra introduced new concern types, as part of wider measures to condemn and stamp out sexism, sexual harassment or gendered violence in healthcare.
While it’s distressing to hear about any case of sexual misconduct in the health system, it’s even more devastating if these incidents go unreported
This year’s complaints also follow on from a record 925 boundary violation notifications received last year.
The types of complaints range from inappropriate or sexualised remarks, intimate touching of a patient without consent, personal relationships where there is an imbalance of power, to aggressive sexual, criminal offending.
“While it’s distressing to hear about any case of sexual misconduct in the health system, it’s even more devastating if these incidents go unreported,” Ahpra CEO Martin Fletcher said.
“Increasing the number of team members dealing with these matters means we can reduce investigation times and reach an outcome quicker,” Mr Fletcher said.
More than 850,000 health practitioners are registered in Australia and fewer than 2% have a notification made relating to their practice or behaviour for any reasons each year.
Across the 16 professions, doctors remain the most complained about with 359 notifications. The optometry profession has had a consistently low number of boundary violation complaints, with nine complaints since 2016 and none in 2022–23.
