Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 27th October 2017 | Page 7

IMGs may get to appeal exam system
GEIR O’ROURKE
IMGs who believe they are being
forced to undergo unfair assess-
ments by specialist medical col-
leges should be given the right to
appeal, a government commission
review says.
There has been a long debate
about the assessments overseas-
trained doctors face before they
are allowed to practise as special-
ists in Australia, and some IMGs
say the process is unjust.
This month, the Australasian
College of Emergency Medi-
cine said it had been cleared of
racial bias after it emerged that
the pass rates for its clinical fel-
lowship exam among candidates
from Caucasian-majority coun-
tries were seven times the rate of
those trained elsewhere.
Now, the Accreditation Sys-
tems Review, which was com-
missioned by state and territory
health ministers, has drawn up
proposals that would increase the
If the reforms are
approved by health
ministers next month,
the ombudsman
could investigate
the administrative
actions of colleges
when undertaking
assessments.
scope of IMGs to challenge medi-
cal colleges.
At present, the health ombuds-
man is empowered to handle
complaints about AHPRA and
the national health practitioner
boards, but not about specialist
Doctor banned after
overseas allegations
RACHEL WORSLEY
A GLOBE-trotting pain
doctor has been suspended
in Australia under emergency
powers after allegations
surfaced overseas that he
was putting patients’ lives at
risk by running a “pill mill”.
Dr Mahmood Ahmad, who
simultaneously practises
in Victoria and the US,
was flying to Alaska for
one long weekend every
month in 2015 and 2016 to
treat patients with chronic
pain, during which time he
allegedly wrote more than
700 opioid scripts.
He ended up before the
Alaskan Medical Board in
June last year, but AHPRA
was notified not by its
counterpart but via a story
in the Alaska Dispatch News
sent anonymously.
The article reported
allegations that Dr Ahmad
had run a “pill mill”, that
pharmacists refused to fill
his prescriptions because of
fears they were dangerous,
and that he had bragged he
could determine the cause of
a patient’s pain with a five-
minute physical examination.
On receiving the tip-off,
AHPRA officials wrote to Dr
Ahmad with four questions
about the allegations. After
he replied in detail, advising
that he expected to be
cleared of all wrongdoing,
AHPRA responded that it
would take no further action.
It wasn’t until two months
later, when an Alaskan court
notified AHPRA that Dr
Ahmad had been summarily
suspended from practising,
that the regulator decided to
suspend him under its own
emergency powers.
Dr Ahmad appealed the
decision, saying he had
received no complaints
about his practice since
he was first registered in
Victoria in 2005. He also
argued he had prescribed
almost no medication in
Australia, where he only
spends a week practising
each month.
He noted that his
practice was restricted
to medicolegal claims,
performing interventional
procedures for pain patients
and as a locum anaesthetist.
But this month, the
Victorian Civil and
Administrative Tribunal threw
out his appeal.
“There is, clearly in our
view, a strong basis in
the objective evidence in
this case for a reasonable
belief that Dr Ahmad’s
performance as a medical
practitioner poses a serious
risk to persons,” the tribunal
ruled.
“We consider that
immediate action is
warranted on the basis of the
suspension of Dr Ahmad’s
registration in Alaska
because of the reasons for
that suspension as set out in
the Alaskan judgement.”
medical colleges.
If the reforms are approved by
health ministers next month, the
ombudsman could investigate the
administrative actions of colleges
when undertaking assessments.
It would, however, not be
able to overturn individual exam
results.
The AMA has already expressed
doubts about the proposals
and has warned that adding to
the legal requirements on col-
leges “will create a more litigious
environment, drive up training
costs and potentially discourage
fellows from contributing”.
“We see very few complaints
from IMGs about assessment pro-
cesses compared with 10 years
ago,” the AMA said in its submis-
sion to the review, released last
week.
But the proposal was welcomed
by Dr Namal Prematillake, one
of 34 IMG doctors who launched
the formal complaint against the
Australasian College of Emer-
gency Medicine after they failed
its 2016 fellowship exam.
The investigation, commis-
sioned by the college, found
“no
statistical
evidence”
that its examiners had been
racially biased when assessing
candidates.
Dr Prematillake dismissed the
conclusions and said his group
would now make a formal com-
plaint to the Australian Human
Rights Commission.
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