2 NEWS
2 NEWS
Uninsured GP blames wife
Heather Saxena A GP who practised without indemnity insurance for two decades has been reprimanded after a tribunal rejected his claim that his wife had misinformed him about premium payments .
However , the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal said a suspension was unnecessary as the 68-year-old was unlikely to repeat the mistake .
It heard that the GP , from northern NSW , had sent a $ 5700 cheque to MDA National back in 2004 that had bounced .
He was sent a letter saying his policy had been cancelled , but the GP claimed he had only realised he was uninsured 17 years later , in September 2021 , when the Medical Council of NSW interviewed him in relation to his COVID-19 vaccination advice .
“ I don ’ t know what to say ,” he told the council at the time .
“ It was 2004 , apparently . My wife thought she ’ d paid it . She hasn ’ t paid it .
“ We found out late last night . I ’ m absolutely horrified .”
Lawyers said the GP — who was suspended for nine months over his COVID-19 vaccine views — had renewed his registration on his home computer after hours .
Each time , he had asked his wife if his
insurance was current , she had said yes and he had ticked the confirmation box on the registration form , the tribunal heard .
“ What [ my wife ] does is , when the bills come in , she pays them ,” the GP told the medical council .
“[ She ] probably doesn ’ t realise who they ’ re for . She unfortunately assumed we were right .
“ And I ’ ve just gone , ‘ Okay , am I insured ? Yes ?
Right .’ “ I feel absolutely ridiculous .” But the tribunal found that the GP had known he was uninsured for more than 10 years because , in 2010 , he applied for a new policy with MDA National , which sent an offer of insurance .
“[ The GP ] did not proceed with the offer ,” the tribunal said , adding that his claim he had found out in 2021 “ was not a truthful statement ”.
“ He knew in 2010 that he did not hold professional indemnity insurance and had not done so since 2004 .”
However , it said the GP ’ s medical knowledge was not in question and that his failure to hold insurance reflected a “ defect of character ”. It was satisfied the GP had “ learnt his lesson ”. The GP secured a new indemnity insurance policy in April 2023 , including retroactive cover .
Outcry over ‘ obstetric violence ’
FROM PAGE 1 apparently , in childbirth , and it ’ s time to change that ,” Professor Dahlen said . “ This is the Me Too of childbirth .” Asked by the chair why she had used the term ‘ obstetric violence ’, she said : “ I can actually understand the sensitivity because , at face value , it can sound like it ’ s a bad obstetrician , when in fact it ’ s not .
“ If you look at the Latin for ‘ obstetrics ’, it is actually pertaining to a midwife .
“ If you look at what it actually means , it is ‘ one who stands opposite ’ the woman giving birth . That is exactly the Latin underpinning of ‘ obstetrics ’.
‘ No means no except in childbirth , and it ’ s time to change that .’
— Professor Hannah Dahlen .
“ We don ’ t have a problem with ‘ obstetric trauma ’. We don ’ t have a problem with ‘ obstetric haemorrhage ’. We don ’ t have a problem with ‘ obstetric emergencies ’. We understand that involves all of us in there , working together .”
Arguing that the label could also be applied to midwife care and was not exclusively reserved for any particular group , Professor Dahlen added : “ We once didn ’ t like the word ‘ domestic violence ’; we preferred ‘ domestic discord ’; we preferred softer words .
“ Now , nobody blinks an eye at ‘ domestic violence ’ because it is what it is .
“ Perhaps we ’ ll come to a point where no-one blinks an eye at ‘ obstetric violence ’, or perhaps we ’ re going to have to soften and change the term to get us all on the same page .
“ But I do not think the term should hold us back from recognising the reality of what women have told us and that we need to do something about it .”
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