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‘They treated me like a criminal’: GP calls for AHPRA system reform
It took two years for a complaint brought against GP Dr Raed Masoud to be resolved, a period of prolonged stress that he says impacted on his physical and mental health.
A number of RACGP members have reported personally experiencing, or knowing other practitioners who have experienced, issues relating to AHPRA’s processes.
It was in March 2019 that Dr Raed Masoud received the notification every GP dreads. He was under investigation by AHPRA, following a complaint from a former patient he had in his care five years prior.
The patient had presented in 2013 with a cough. Dr Masoud ordered an X-ray, which came back normal, and the GP noted in the patient’s records that a CT scan should be ordered if symptoms persisted.
In the meantime, the patient was being treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with antibiotics and inhalers, and a follow up consultation confirmed a good response.
Five months later however, the patient returned with persistent symptoms, at which point Dr Masoud had ceased working at the practice. A CT scan ordered by a former colleague confirmed the patient had lung cancer.
‘It wasn’t until March 2019 when this particular patient reported me to AHPRA. The entire case was closed in March 2021 – so it dragged on for two years,’ Dr Masoud told newsGP.
‘It was a triggered complaint; the patient wrote that the doctor informed the patient that I should have sent the patient for a CT scan.’
Almost 15 months after the GP was informed of the complaint, AHPRA issued him with a caution on 6 June 2020. His solicitor was only informed one month later, yet it had already been published on the public domain.
‘I tried to find out when it was up in the public domain. Nobody wanted to give me the information,’ Dr Masoud said. ‘When I pressed on it, they said to me it was up and running on the 30th of June. That’s seven days before I was informed – that’s inappropriate.
‘I am the one who is concerned, I am the one who is being investigated, I am the one who should be fully informed.’
Dr Masoud followed up his complaint to the Ombudsman and received a letter of apology. But he says it was too little, too late.
‘I’m not really looking for a letter of apology,’ he said.
‘Everything was put on COVID-19, everything. For God’s sake, a case like this shouldn’t be entertained for more than six months, at most.
‘They said one of their staffers resigned and they were short of staff. This is not my issue. Why do I have to put up with the stress and anxiety and unpleasant time because one of your staff has resigned?’
Over the course of the two-year investigation, Dr Masoud says he was made to feel like a ‘criminal’, and that when he tried to contact AHPRA he struggled to get a response to his queries.
‘Throughout the investigations they were ruthless; they didn’t care, they treated me with disrespect,’ he said.
In the meantime, Dr Masoud’s son had been diagnosed with cancer, and he was also facing health issues of his own. He says the uncertainty and lack of a clear timeline from AHPRA was distressing and impacted his confidence as a GP.
‘AHPRA doesn’t know anything about my private circumstances, they just follow a certain way of dealing with practitioners; they don’t really care about their psychological wellbeing,’ Dr Masoud said. ‘I was completely disenchanted with my profession.
‘I was practising more like medical legal medicine. I was overcautious; I was ordering investigations left, right and centre. Sometimes I had to go back to my notes the following day to write more notes.’
Dr Raed Masoud says during the course of the two-year investigation, he suffered from severe stress and anxiety, and his confidence as a GP was shattered. (Image: Supplied)
Dr Masoud is not alone in his experience.
During a 2017 Senate inquiry, the RACGP identified a series of issues regarding AHPRA’s notifications process and stated it had received ‘an overwhelming response’ from members who had experienced, or knew of practitioners who had experienced, issues relating to AHPRA’s processes.
The Senate Committee agreed with the college’s recommendations, resulting in the release of a new framework by AHPRA to help identify and deal with vexatious complaints.
However, in the college’s most recent submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, the RACGP has called for more to be done to improve the notifications process, particularly with regards to ‘communication, transparency, timeliness and recognition of the impacts of the assessment and investigation process on a practitioner’s mental health’.
‘The Senate Committee should recommend an overhaul of the notifications process with the intention of easing pressure on AHPRA and the National Boards,’ the RACGP has recommended.
‘This will ensure more resources can be dedicated to managing remaining notifications and supporting practitioners and notifiers through the notification process.’
Dr Masoud says a timely response, and clearer communication, would have made a world of difference to his mental health.
‘I know that they are out there to protect and safeguard the public,’ he said. ‘But again, they cannot treat us with disrespect.
‘You cannot ask us to comply with a condition within 10 days, whereas I wait for months just for them to make a decision. For instance, my educational plan that I needed to do to comply with the conditions, I had to wait three months for that – why?
‘Why do they put me under pressure to comply with a condition, whereas once I need answers from them, I had to wait for months and months?’
Dr Masoud also believes there should be more accountability for the impact of AHPRA’s processes on healthcare professionals through the establishment of an independent body.
‘I don’t think they put into consideration practitioners’ wellbeing,’ he said.
‘I feel a lot of their decisions, the way they practice, needs to be supervised and overseen by a more powerful organisation that oversees and monitors their actions and decisions.
‘Unfortunately, there isn’t, so they have the upper hand, and no one can actually stand up to them.’
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