title: Removal of doctors from practice for professional misconduct in Australia and New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how disciplinary tribunals assess different forms of misconduct in deciding whether to remove doctors from practice for professional misconduct.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multivariable regression analysis of 485 cases in which tribunals found doctors guilty of professional misconduct. The cases came from four Australian states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia) and New Zealand and were decided over a 10-year period (1 January 2000 - 30 September 2009).
  
  
  METHODS
  Type of misconduct, the tribunal's explanation for why the misconduct occurred, and the disciplinary measure imposed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  43% of the cases resulted in removal of the offending doctor from practice, 37% in restrictions on practice and 19% in non-restrictive sanctions. The odds of removal were very high in cases involving sexual relationships with patients (OR 22.59; 95% CI 10.18 to 50.14) and moderately high in cases involving inappropriate sexual conduct (not in the context of a relationship), commission of criminal offences, and forms of inappropriate conduct unrelated to patients. Cases in which the misconduct was judged to be due to willful wrongdoing (OR 17.14; 95% CI 8.62 to 34.09), incompetence (OR 6.02; 95% CI 2.87 to 12.63) and issues in the doctor's personal life (OR 4.17; 95% CI 2.07 to 8.41) also had higher odds removal from practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tribunals in Australia and New Zealand tend to remove doctors from practice for behaviours indicative of character flaws and lack of insight, rather than behaviours exhibiting errors in care delivery, poor clinical judgement or lack of knowledge. The generalisability of these findings to regulatory regimes for health practitioners in other countries should be tested.
authors: The Melbourne School of Population Health, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors: Katie
authors: K
authors: Elkin
authors: Matthew J
authors: MJ
authors: Spittal
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Elkin
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Studdert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D057237:Criminals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004647:Employee Discipline; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008007:Licensure, Medical; D008297:Male; D008318:Malpractice; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D028743:Professional Misconduct; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012742:Sex Offenses; D017406:Sexual Harassment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders