Royal Commission Begins Investigation into Health Care Providers and Regulators

As previously covered by TimeBase, and as a part of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse (The Commission), the latest media release (10 April 2015) has announced that the Commission is holding a public hearing on 6 May 2015 to address issues surrounding health care providers and regulators.

Background to the Commission

On 2 July 2014, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released its interim report, detailing for the first time the full scope and comprehensiveness of its inquiry into institutional child sexual abuse in Australia.

The report detailed the impacts of the royal commission to date, including substantive cultural and policy shifts within institutions with responsibility for children. The commission had also gathered vital and previously unavailable data on the dynamics of institutional abuse as well as commissioning original research in the area. This work will inform child protection policy well into the future.

The report identified the following steps which were still to be undertaken:

• identify what institutions and governments should do to achieve ‘best practice’ in reporting and responding to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts;
• identify what institutions and governments should do to ensure justice for victims by providing redress by institutions, processes for referral for investigation and prosecution, and support services;
• make recommendations about any policy, legislative, administrative or structural reforms; and
• have regard to changes to laws, policies, practices and systems that have improved the ability of institutions and governments to better protect against and respond to child sexual abuse in institutional contexts. 

Current Public Hearing into Health Care Providers and Regulators

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The experience of a number of patients of health care services in New South Wales who were sexually abused as children in:
1. private medical practices; and
2. public hospitals;
2. The experience of a number of complainants who made complaints against a medical practitioner to the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and the then New South Wales Medical Board;
3. The systems, policies, practices and procedures for receiving, investigating and responding to complaints against medical practitioners of child sexual abuse of:
1. the HCCC;
2. the Medical Council of New South Wales; and
3. the Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney;
4. The experience of an outpatient who alleges child sexual abuse by a psychologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Northern Sydney in the late 1960’s;
5. The systems, policies and procedures of the Northern Sydney Local Health District and New South Wales Ministry of Health for preventing, detecting and responding to child sexual abuse;
6. The experience of an inpatient who alleged child sexual abuse by a volunteer at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne in the early 1980’s;
7. The response of The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria to an allegation of child sexual abuse made against a hospital volunteer;
8. The systems, policies and procedures of The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria for preventing, detecting and responding to child sexual abuse; and
9. Any related matters.

Applications for leave to appear at the public hearing should be made by 22 April 2015 by emailing the Royal Commission at the link below.

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Media Release - Royal Commission Website

Bill Madden Medical and Health Law Blog