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Jail time for fake doctors in Australia.

Jail time for fake doctors in Australia

Representative Image: Courtesy Pixabay

The federal, state and territorial governments have agreed to roll out tough laws allowing authorities to impose higher penalties on fake doctors including a maximum prison time of three years. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority(AHPRA) will now be able to impose the harsher penalties from Monday.

The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act was amended after more than 50 fake practitioners have been prosecuted by authorities since 2014. The amended law includes a prison term now. Individuals found guilty of committing the fraud will now face heavy fines as penalties rise from $30,000 to $60,000 per offence, while fines are doubled from $60,000 to $120,000 for corporate entities caught deceiving patients.

The new offence provisions will apply in all states and territories, except Western Australia. The amendments to offence provisions do not apply to the advertising offences under the National Law.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation welcomed the changes and believes the strengthened provisions are a positive move for both the public and practitioners. ‘The public places a great amount of trust in nurses and the work they do. Anyone who falsely claims to be a nurse betrays this trust and must face the consequences. These extended offence provisions are important in further protecting registered professions such as nursing and as another way to ensure patient safety,’ ANMF Federal Secretary Annie Butler said.

A number of high-profile and disturbing cases across Australia have triggered this change.

They included Raffaele Di Paolo, based in Victoria, who claimed to be a gynecologist and obstetrician when he was actually a homeopath. He performed a range of bizarre treatments and tests on 30 of his patients, from using a needle to remove semen from the testicles of a man without anesthetic to injecting homeopathic substances into the stomachs and buttocks of women.

Another extreme case of deception that sent shockwaves through the medical industry was that of Indian national Shyam Acharya who stole a qualified doctors identity and claimed to be Dr.Sarang Chitale and worked in NSW for more than a decade. He had obtained citizenship under the new identity.

Other prosecutions have included people pretending to be – physiotherapistspsychologistsdentists, and pharmacists. A landmark case involved the conviction of fake nurse Mr. Nicholas Crawford, who was ordered to pay more than $40,000 for falsely claiming to be a registered nurse across two states, Queensland and Western Australia. In April this year, Mr. David Citer was convicted of claiming to be a registered psychologist and unlawfully using the protected title ‘psychologist’, for a second time. Mr. Citer was convicted of offences under the National Law and fined $25,000.

Patients are advised to check the online register of practitioners to confirm if they are seeing a registered medical practitioner.

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