The person who forwarded it to me wrote, “An Australian doctor wrote this to APHRA. This is the best thing I’ve read in a while and true to the core.”
To the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency,
I would like to advise you that I will be cancelling my registration as of today. I expect my recent payment for the upcoming period to be refunded in full. At this stage I do not intend to return to the profession, and I will be retiring approx 20 years earlier than anticipated. As a defence veteran who served this country to protect our people’s rights and freedoms, my heart is broken that our society and the health profession has so openly accepted discrimination and division. I reserve the right to reconsider my registration, without prejudice, if and when the health sector returns to working with ethical and moral standards.
I am disheartened and disgusted by the lack of ethics and the sudden widely accepted discrimiation running rife in the medical profession in response to COVID-19 and the relevant government mandates that appear to breach medical ethics and human rights. The health sector (and you as the regulating body) has allowed itself to be politicised and used as a tool to coerce, rather than educate and empower patients and the wider community, when deciding on the best individualised patient-centred care. And yes, individualised care MUST remain a core value even in a public health response. After all, the public are simply a collective of individuals who live together in our community. Fear has replaced compassion. Coercion has replaced consent.
I cannot work in a system that supports medical apartheid, division and discrimination. A system that has allowed itself to be politicised rather than honouring the sacred relationship between a patient and their health practitioner. My first lessons at university were about empathy, respect, medical autonomy and informed consent. I was taught that I should ALWAYS include a treatment option to “do nothing” and that I need not understand or agree with a patient’s decision, but I am morally and ethically obliged to respect and abide by it.
I cannot accept that public health should come at the expense of an individual’s health. Hearing some of my patients, friends, family and colleagues relay stories about the discriminatory, rude, mean, fear-mongering manner in which they have been treated and continue to be treated disgusts me to my very core. And trust me, I have heard way too many of them. If you’re not hearing these, maybe stop and listen with an open heart and mind. The stories are plentiful. I sent a letter to AHPRA dated 2nd August 2021 outlining some of my earlier concerns, yet no-one from AHPRA has even bothered to respond.
I cannot accept that it is okay for health professionals to refuse to treat patients based on their decision to consent to a medical procedure, especially one that remains a medical trial with no long term safety data. I cannot believe that elderly patients have had to wait outdoors during winter because they have a mask exemption or that a cardiologist has refused to see a patient who was unvaccinated even though their appointment was to discuss valid concerns about the vaccination due to a cardiac history. A skin specialist refused to see a little girl, and a young boy was turned away from a private hospital to have his open head wound repaired because their parents were unvaccinated (both single mothers).
Physios, GP’s, optometrists…the list goes on.
This is abhorrent, unethical and inexcusable.
YOU, my regulation body, should be insisting that your practitioners act ethically, morally and respectfully at all times, and not simply in line with state government mandates that appear to breach the Nuremberg Code, the Geneva Convention, The United Nations Convention, The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, The United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights, The Magna Carta and The Constitution of Australia.
I cannot accept that our government can mandate any medical procedure, ever. As my 16 year old told me when I got home from work one day recently, our government is breaching ALL of our human rights (he decided to look them up himself, unprompted – proud mum moment). When exactly did we sell our souls and morals?
I cannot accept that my children or yours need to have a medical procedure to be allowed to play sports, go to the cinema or work, when no-one can possibly answer questions and concerns about long term or intergenerational health impacts, because the data quite simply doesn’t yet exist. By all means, provide access to it, but the risks are unknown. Where there is risk, there must be choice.
I cannot accept that informed consent exists where there is fear and coercion. When a patient arrives for a medical procedure and says they’re only having it to keep their job, that is NOT fully informed consent. Any practitioner who continues with that medical procedure breaches medical ethics. Check the immunisation handbook, it’s right there in black and white. I cannot work in an industry that suddenly believes this is acceptable practice.
I cannot accept that our pandemic plans were thrown out the window and the years of planning based on quality evidence and professional advice was dismissed. I am told to trust the science that led to the current decisions being made, but the government continues to fight tooth and nail to NOT reveal it to the public. And YOU, as my regulatory agency, have not been at the forefront in demanding that we see the evidence so that we can work to continually improve our understanding, knowledge and response.
I cannot accept that the scientific community is prevented from engaging in open and honest debate. Or that any medical practitioner who speaks against the public health advice is suspended, defamed or discredited. And I cannot accept that the health profession is not alarmed and reacting to the safety mechanisms we put in place after previous errors in science came to our attention (think Thalidomide as an easy example). The Australian DAEN, United States VAERS and UK’s Yellow Card systems were set up for a reason and the data is well worth reflecting on.
I cannot accept that my registration body and professional association have done little to nothing to support health practitioners in remaining free from political intervention in the decisions they make for each individual patient. I was taught to personalise every treatment for every patient in order to maximise the best outcomes for them, something we used to refer to as patient-centred care. But for GP’s and all other health professionals to be effectively gagged and threatened with de-registration from their right to practice for honestly discussing a patient’s concerns and allowing them to feel comfortable with the best decision for them (while keeping public health in mind) is unacceptable.
I cannot accept that the public health response and messaging to the wider community has been so narrow. There appears to have been little to no effort in raising public awareness of the modifiable risk factors associated with severe illness and poor outcomes, let alone acting to reduce these risk factors. There appears to have been little to no messaging on ways to boost one’s natural immunity and improve overall health, leaving people in a better place to fight any illness if necessary. There appears to have been little to no emphasis on early treatment options during the ambulatory phase of the disease. Instead, we leave patients isolated at home with little to no advice or treatment and wait until they are so sick that they need to be hospitalised. I have asked my GP multiple times for updated advice over the past 18 months and continue to be told, nope, there’s nothing we can offer for early treatment. Despite a plethora of emerging evidence from overseas that we are not allowing to be openly and honestly debated or trialed.
I cannot accept that I need to live in a society where everyday citizens are banned from their workplace, attending their local library or getting a haircut unless they share their private medical information. There is no scientific or moral justification for someone’s medical status to be linked to their ability to participate in society.
I cannot accept that schools are having children wear yellow wristbands to easily identify those who have mask exemptions and/or are unvaccinated so that they can be segregated from their peers. I know this to be true, my primary school aged child has a mask exemption and was picked up from school wearing a yellow wristband.
When the medical profession and society decide to respect the rights and privacy of the individual again, I will consider returning to my profession. But for now, I flatly refuse to participate in this nasty and divisive two-tiered society that you have helped endorse. I will not “show my papers” to be able to work, let alone enter a facility or building.
I quite simply will not participate in, nor accept, the discrimination. You have failed me and every citizen of Australia.
Regards,