New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner says the state’s health watchdog is fulfilling its role despite a drop in the number of cases where doctors are prosecuted.
In the past four years, the number of complaints to the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has risen by 25 per cent and is expected to exceed 5,000 by December.
However, examples of disciplinary action have dropped by a third.
The Opposition’s health spokesman, Andrew McDonald, says it is because funding has been cut.
“We need a properly funded and staffed Health Care Complaints Commission – it’s vital for patient safety,” he said.
But Ms Skinner has denied the agency is in a funding crisis.
“The HCCC has had a 13 per cent increase in its budget,” she said.
She says the reason the number of disciplinary cases has dropped is because doctors are quitting before an investigation into allegations against them is complete.
“That is the advice that I received from the HCCC, that doctors are seeing the writing on the wall and they’re going to the register and saying, ‘we wish to be removed or have our practices restricted’.”