A sustained jump in reports to authorities about sexual misconduct and harassment in healthcare has seen the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) significantly increase its resources to deal with the increase.
New data revealed on Fri showed 841 allegations of "boundary violations" were made to AHPRA in 2022/23, relating to 728 registered health practitioners.
That's an increase of almost 50% in just two years, with complaints ranging from inappropriate or sexualised remarks to intimate touching of a patient without consent, personal relationships where there is a power imbalance and aggressive sexual criminal offending.
AHPRA CEO Martin Fletcher said while it was distressing to hear about any case of sexual misconduct in the health system, "it's even more devastating if these incidents go unreported".
He said the agency had added 10 team members dealing with these matters, with the aim of leading to reduced investigation times and faster outcomes.
Doctors remain the most complained about profession, with 359 notifications, followed by 215 complaints about nurses and 120 about psychologists.
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