How stupid are Australian’s when it comes to health?
We’ll believe an unregistered quack, non scientific data found on the internet but question the science of trained registered medical professionals!
To the nay-sayers, anti-vaxxers, non-believers.. you are risking your lives and the lives of your friends and family. Vaccines are one of the safest and most effective health interventions for infectious diseases. They have had a staggering impact on reducing the burden of infectious cases worldwide.
If you wish to put your “human rights” before your “right to life” then think about your family and friends and there right to life.
More than 60 fake ‘medics’ uncovered in past 5 years
AUSTRALIANS are being put at risk by dodgy doctors amid revelation that dozens of fakes, fraudsters and unregistered medics have been caught illegally treating patients.
More than 60 fake or unregistered doctors, nurses, dentists and other health professionals have been caught treating unsuspecting patients in the five years since January 2016.
A 10 per cent jump in complaints against unregistered medics last year has prompted authorities to urge Australians to check the qualifications of their practitioners.
Victorian patients have been placed in the greatest danger, with 25 health workers prosecuted since 2016 for “holding out” – the term health regulators use for anyone practising without medical registration.
Five others – including a doctor, nurse or midwife and occupational therapist – are currently facing charges in Victorian courts.
Other recent investigations have uncovered doctors and dentists who had practised for more than a decade in Melbourne’s suburbs without any qualifications before being caught, despite leaving a trail of damaged patients.
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency chief executive Martin Fletcher said some of those caught holding out were banned or suspended practitioners who ignored orders relating to their safety. Others may have never been trained or sought registration in Australia at all before passing themselves off as medics.
Mr Fletcher said both categories raised serious dangers for unsuspecting patients.
“If you are a patient you are entitled to expect the person you are seeing, who is providing treatment, is who they say they are and has the qualifications and skills you’d expect of a registered health practitioner,” he said.
“It is often quite a gross violation of the trust of patients to be seeing someone who is forcibly claiming to be registered when they are not.”
After a string of concerning and high-profile cases were uncovered, Australian health ministers beefed up laws across the country from July 1, last year, making holding out an offence punishable by jail.
One of those cases was Muhammet Velipasaoglu, who had treated hundreds of patients at a dental clinic in his Meadow Heights garage for 12 years before being detected in 2015. He pleaded guilty but escaped prison as the maximum allowed sentence was a monetary fine.
Mr Fletcher said the best way for the public to remain safe and receive appropriate medical care was to check the national register of practitioners , which lists more than 820,000 registered practitioners across 16 professions.
“You know they are qualified and you know they are subject to standards and, if there are restrictions on their registration, that will appear on their registration as well,” Mr Fletcher said.
Maurice Blackburn national head of medical negligence Dimitra Dubrow said it was unfortunate Australians needed to examine medical registers to ensure their practitioner was legitimate. “We are often approached by people who have suffered shocking injuries at the hands of these perpetrators , many of whom have unfortunately only realised the person treating them was unqualified or had been banned after the damage had been done,” she said.
This article by GRANT McARTHUR is from the August 16, 2021 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit https://www.heraldsun.com.au/.
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