Fear the Culture of Fear By Mrs Vera West
Freelance writer, Rebekah Barnett, who blogs at the great site, Dystopian Down Under (please support her) has another tremendous piece on the culture of fear that medical regulators AHPRA and the Medical Board, are creating, according to a number of doctors, speaking out. Cardiologist and president of the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS), Dr Chris Neil, warns that a culture of fear and silence in Australian medicine is undermining the doctor-patient relationship, and it began with the Covid vax rollout.
While I agree with this, and do see these restrictions as intimidating the minority of medical practitioners who might otherwise speak out, if their high-paying jobs were not at stake, the narrative does not address the larger herd of elephants in the room, that from medical school onwards, Big Pharma looms large in the epistemology of doctors, as a universal saviour, delivering the magic drugs, just like the witch doctors in pre-modern societies. I know that GPs have been religious advocates of the vax, even though the law does not require this, only compliance. And there self-interest here too. How about this, for example, from August 2021:
“With National Cabinet having set national vaccination targets aimed at allowing Australia to reach a post-COVID normal, the Federal Government is now offering GPs cash incentives to help to speed up the rollout and protect vulnerable people in the community.
GPs will now receive a $1000 payment once they vaccinate 50 vaccinate aged care and disability workers, and $20 per worker thereafter. The funding is only available for vaccinations that are provided via a dedicated in-reach service, but can be claimed in addition to existing flag-fall arrangements and the Medicare items for delivering COVID vaccines.
The incentive is cumulative, which mean the vaccinations can be delivered in one or multiple facilities. In addition, the payments can be backdated to mid-April and will be available until the end of October 2021.
RACGP President Dr Karen Price has backed the plan, describing the new incentive payments as a positive step forward.
‘Many people may not realise the vital role GPs play in caring for older people in aged care facilities, so it is a logical step for GPs to be incentivised to vaccinate those who care for people in these facilities,’ she said.
‘GPs are the backbone of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and they are doing a tremendous job; however, the rollout has presented many challenges for general practice, so these additional payments are just what the doctor ordered.’”
Doctors are part of the Vaccination cult.
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/gps-to-receive-cash-incentives-to-vaccinate-aged-c
“Australian doctors claim that medical regulators AHPRA and the Medical Board are bringing about a ‘dangerous shift’ in the medical profession, jeopardising patients.
Cardiologist and president of the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS), Dr Chris Neil, warns that a culture of fear and silence in Australian medicine is undermining the doctor-patient relationship. Dr Neil says that AHPRA’s position statement on the Covid vaccine rollout (March 2021) is at the root of this “dangerous shift in Australian medicine,” in which doctors are becoming increasingly beholden to governments and bureaucrats instead of the individual patient.
Dr Neil and AMPS’s concerns were expressed in a letter from AMPS to the AHPRA CEO, Mr Martin Fletcher (14 April 2022): ‘AHPRA’s gag orders impede professional health advice and patient advocacy based on individual patient risk/benefit assessment by labelling such professional advice “the promotion of anti-vaccination statements”, “health advice which contradicts the best available scientific evidence” or “seeking to undermine the national immunisation campaign”.’
These concerns are echoed by former president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Dr Kerryn Phelps, who claimed late last year that “Regulators of the medical profession have censored public discussion about adverse events following immunisation, with threats to doctors not to make any public statements about anything that ‘might undermine the government’s vaccine rollout’ or risk suspension or loss of their regulation.”
AHPRA’s position statement and their aggressive enforcement of it have created conditions for suppression of debate over Covid treatments and measures, discipline and deregistration of dissenting doctors, and censorship of vaccine injuries, in what amounts in some cases to the complete abandonment of patients by doctors who are fearful of being seen as ‘anti-vax’ by the public and the regulator.
Dr Neil says these conditions will be exacerbated by changes to the National Law for Health Practitioner Regulation, which were introduced last October in the Queensland Parliament, as reported by Umbrella News. The changes, which the AMA strongly opposes, will bar doctors from saying anything that could be construed as undermining public confidence in public health policy and will create a culture of ‘guilty until proven innocent’ by allowing medical professionals who are under investigation to be publicly named and shamed by regulators before an outcome is decided.
“What they have created is a Star Chamber effect,” says Dr Neil, in reference to the medieval court of nobles that was used to systematically silence and oppress opponents of King Charles I. History books show that the Star Chamber (named after the star-patterned ceiling of the room in the old palace of Westminster, where secret meetings were held) had a strong chilling effect on dissent. The panel, acting autonomously, was prone to abuses of power. “It’s a watermark of how bad it can get if we let groups rule without oversight or due process,” says Dr Neil.
Dr Mark Hobart has experienced the Star Chamber effect first-hand. Umbrella News previously reported that Dr Hobart’s medical licence was suspended in November 2021 after third-party reports were made to regulators about vaccine exemptions that he had issued to patients. Though AHPRA has yet to find him guilty of anything, Dr Hobart has been suspended without an income for over a year while he waits for AHPRA to move forward with his investigation. “I want to have a trial,” says Dr Hobart. “I want them to prove their accusation that I’m a risk to the public. They’ve destroyed my practice. I’ve had no income for 14 months.” Dr Hobart has taken the matter to the Supreme Court to expedite his tribunal.
An AHPRA spokesperson advises that out of the 18,710 notifications it received concerning 14,313 health practitioners in 2021-2022, only 21 health practitioners (12 of which were medical practitioners) were suspended. Of the notifications,1300 were in relation to Covid. All in all, 1.7% of all registered health practitioners were the subject of one or more notifications, which was an increase of 6.2% on the previous year. The devil is not so much in these numbers though, as it is in the chilling effect that the prospect of investigation (and potential suspension) has on doctors’ interactions with patients and the public.
“The process is the punishment,” says Dr Duncan Syme, who, like Dr Hobart, has been suspended indefinitely while he waits for AHPRA to review his case. “While you’re [suspended] under investigation, you cannot earn a living. So, doctors are scared into toeing the line because you can’t risk getting investigated.” In matters where the regulators have inserted themselves between the doctor and the patient (firstly, relating to Covid, and soon, to other areas of public health in some states when the changes to National Law are enacted), Dr Syme says doctors face an impossible decision:
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/12/phelps-breaks-ahpras-culture-of-fear/
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