A racist leaflet dropped into letterboxes in the NSW town of Kurri Kurri has sparked a renewed push for more protections for GPs and doctors in private practice who may be subject to patient aggression.
The leaflet, which Hunter MP Dan Repacholi described on Facebook as “disgusting”, advertised a “remigration” rally and made specific reference to migrants from South Asia.
“We have already seen local doctors abused and targeted with racist comments,” Mr Repacholi said.
“Now cowards are spreading this hateful rubbish through our community. Let me be absolutely clear.
“Racism is not welcome in Kurri. It is not welcome in the Hunter. And it will not go unchallenged.”
Last week, a post on a local community Facebook page welcoming two new GPs to the region received an influx of racist comments directed at the doctors. The Medical Republic has chosen not to link to this post.
AMA (NSW) director Dr Michael Bonning, a Sydney-based GP, told TMR that the association stands firmly behind all doctors practising in Australia.
“There is no place in Australian healthcare for this kind of racism, and no place for it in the community,” he said.
“But there are people being emboldened, and that will ultimately significantly harm the delivery of healthcare in this country.
“… International medical graduates make up a substantial proportion of our medical workforce, and if you are outside metro areas, more than 50% [of doctors are] international medical graduates.
“… If Australia is seen to be a place that is unsafe, it will hamper the ability of Australia to have doctors in those regions, because doctors will and should feel safe.”
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Dr Bonning said GPs were in a uniquely vulnerable position.
Where hospital doctors have the safety of hospital security and pharmacists tend to have at least a bench between themselves and the patient, GP consult rooms are often set up with no barrier between the patient and doctor.
“In private practice you are in a room, often with just two people, and the things that go on there can be particularly confronting,” he said.
“We need, as a profession, to take a stand on this.
“But there’s also the legislative approach – having enforceable rules and protections for doctors.”
AMA-led research from 2022, Dr Bonning said, found that 70% of doctors had experienced verbal or written aggression in their practice.
“We have found that it is really challenging to work through this, because individual doctors don’t feel empowered to say anything,” the Sydney GP said.
“They need to come to an organisation like the AMA to take on that mantle for them. Sometimes that is helping them seek protection or ways in which to exit a patient from a clinical practice, to say ‘you’re no longer welcome here’.
“But when it’s done like this – [with racist] leaflet drops – it targets [doctors] without necessarily being someone that you could get out of your practice.
“I can only imagine how it would feel, to feel like you have eyes on you, in that way, in a community.”
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