.png)
The full Call for a Parliamentary Inquiry
Our letter includes the testimonials of doctors currently affected by AHPRA, the published conditions on Dr Andrew Amos and Dr Julian Fidge, and a chronology of parliamentary scrutiny of AHPRA from 2010 to 2026.
Good healthcare depends on open conversation
Patients need doctors, nurses and other health professionals who can explain all their options, question established thinking when the evidence warrants it, offer a second opinion, and put the individual in front of them first. Medicine has always advanced this way: through debate, disagreement and practitioners willing to ask hard questions.
Today, many Australian health practitioners are afraid, and doctors are among those most often in the firing line. They fear that an honest opinion, a respectful disagreement with official guidance, or a treatment tailored to an individual patient could trigger a complaint and a lengthy investigation by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). AHPRA oversees more than 900,000 practitioners across 16 professions, and its investigations can drag on for months or years, often without clear explanation, with consequences for practitioners’ livelihoods, reputations and mental health.
The human cost is real. Research commissioned by AHPRA itself found that 16 health practitioners died while subject to notifications between 2018 and 2021, 12 of them confirmed suicides and four suspected. Behind those numbers are families, colleagues and patients who lost someone who cared for them.
These are not isolated cases. We have gathered the stories of 11 doctors who faced investigation and serious sanctions, including suspensions, restrictive conditions and lasting damage to their careers and health, although no patient was harmed. Many were penalised for departing from guidelines or policy positions rather than for any failure of clinical care. Their experiences raise serious questions about whether AHPRA’s actions are proportionate to the risks it is meant to address.
This affects every patient
When health practitioners are afraid, they practise defensively. They avoid discussing options outside narrow guidelines, hesitate to speak up about concerns, and some leave their profession altogether, worsening shortages that already make it hard to see a GP, specialist, psychologist or nurse. Patients lose choice, lose candid advice, and lose the practitioners they trust.
A regulator’s role is to protect the public. Doing so requires fairness, transparency, proportionality and accountability, the same standards we expect of health professionals. Australians deserve to know whether AHPRA is meeting them.
That is why we are calling on Parliament to act.
We respectfully request that Parliament establish a full independent inquiry into AHPRA’s governance, accountability, use of coercive regulatory powers, treatment of practitioners, and broader impact on the health professions and patient care.
What we are asking Parliament to examine
We call on Parliament to establish an inquiry into AHPRA and the operation of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, with particular examination of:
- AHPRA’s governance, culture and accountability to Parliament;
- the threshold, evidentiary basis and proportionality of immediate action decisions;
- delays in investigations and the consequences for practitioners and patients;
- procedural fairness, reasons for decisions and access to evidence;
- the management of complaints involving contested public policy, clinical judgment or professional opinion;
- the impact of regulatory action on practitioner mental health, including reported suicides during notification or investigation processes;
- the adequacy of oversight, review and appeal mechanisms; and
- whether legislative reform is required to restore confidence, fairness and independence in health practitioner regulation.
Donate
The Australian Medical Professionals' Society is accepting donations. Money raised will be receipted to Red Union Support Hub and used to help assist AMPS in running campaigns and raising awareness of the need for doctors to be unshackled by AHPRA and censorious bureaucrats.