An ACT doctor has been banned for 12 months over discriminatory and offensive behaviour towards Australia’s sole Indigenous ophthalmologist Associate Professor Kris Rallah-Baker, in a landmark outcome described as another step towards “dismantling all forms of racism from Australia’s healthcare system”.
The banned doctor, whose name has been supressed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, admitted that his conduct towards Rallah-Baker, a Yuggera, Warangoo and Wiradjuri man, was culturally unsafe, insulting and offensive.
According to a statement from the Medical Board of Australia (MBA), the outcome is in line with a recent strengthening of the National Law, which means that tribunals and other health regulatory decision makers must consider racist and culturally unsafe practices when deciding matters of professional misconduct.
The MBA referred the now-retired ACT doctor to the tribunal over an offensive email sent to Rallah-Baker, which it said included insulting and culturally unsafe comments.
“The tribunal’s ruling is a clear message that racist and culturally unsafe practice and behaviour is unlawful and carries substantive penalties, including disqualification from registration,” MBA chair Dr Anne Tonkin said.
“We acknowledge the impact this has had on A/Prof Kris Rallah-Baker and his family over the past two years and hope this outcome can help in their healing.”
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) CEO Mr Martin Fletcher said the recent reforms were underpinned by undisputed evidence that racism in all its forms – systemic, institutional and interpersonal – is harmful. Ahpra’s primary role is to protect the public while National Boards set standards registered health practitioners must meet.
“The tribunal’s finding further highlights that racist and discriminatory behaviours will not be tolerated in Australia’s health system,” he said.
“Cultural safety is clinical safety, and required by the National Law. Registered health practitioners are also expected to take steps to educate themselves on cultural safety.”
The case in question
In its October ruling, the tribunal reprimanded the doctor after finding his behaviour constituted professional misconduct. The body disqualified the doctor from applying for registration as a health practitioner and prohibited him from providing any health services for 12 months.
Senior Tribunal members found “in the email the respondent displayed discriminatory and offensive behaviour which had a deleterious emotional effect on Dr Rallah-Baker”.
“The Tribunal finds that the respondent’s comments in an email he forwarded to Dr Rallah-Baker treated Dr Rallah-Baker less favourably than other persons because of his racial background,’ the tribunal found.
“The respondent engaged in further misconduct in his interaction with the Australian Health Practitioners’ Regulatory Authority (sic) by making disrespectful, offensive and culturally insensitive comments about Dr Rallah-Baker, whom the respondent did not know and had never met.
“He also made offensive comments about Australians who identify as Indigenous and have mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritage, the members of the Medical Board of Australia and employees of Ahpra. This conduct is unbecoming of a medical practitioner and, in our view, has the potential to bring the medical profession into disrepute.”
The Tribunal decided to suppress the name of the retired doctor after determining that the risk in publishing his name outweighed any public benefit in doing so.
A/Prof Rallah-Baker reportedly took the unusual step of requesting the tribunal did include his name in its published findings because he said “it was important for me that this outcome wasn’t faceless, for people to see they won’t be brought down if they complain about racism, and if they need to reach out, they can”.
“Racism in the healthcare system contributes to patient harm and premature death,” Rallah-Baker said.
The tribunal’s full decision was published on by the ACT Civil & Administrative Tribunal on 24 October 2023.
Cultural safety now enshrined in the national law
Ahpra’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy Unit (HSU) advocated for the critical legislative reforms to support its work towards eliminating racism in healthcare as a matter of urgency.
HSU national director Ms Jayde Fuller, a Gomeroi woman, said, the decision was vindicating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples whose experiences of racism in healthcare settings, as a consumer or practitioner, are minimised or refuted entirely.
“With the newly established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National Special Issues Committees as decision-makers on matters, the active recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff handling complaints involving us, and a dedicated Indigenous led working group to reform the cultural safety of the complaints processes – we have a clear path forward to tackling racism in healthcare towards our people,” she said.
Co-chairs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Strategy Group, Birri-Gubba and South Sea Islander woman, Associate Professor Carmen Parter and Kuku Yalanji man, Mr Karl Briscoe added: “The ruling sends a clear message that racism and discrimination towards fellow professionals will not be tolerated.”
Ahpra is creating a culturally safe notification process for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples making a complaint. It is finalising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander special issues committees to review complaints and is close to releasing an anti-racism policy.
The HSU is also developing cultural safety CPD for all registered health practitioners.
“We are taking a strategic approach to dismantling all forms of racism, systemic, institutional and interpersonal. This includes ownership and accountability by providers, practitioners and regulators to creating safe healthcare,” Fuller said.
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