Health class action
The case will target AHPRA, the Health Care Complaints Commission, and national health boards and councils.
The recently formed Australian Zionist Healthcare Alliance (AZHA) has announced plans for a class action lawsuit against health regulators.
The case will target AHPRA, the Health Care Complaints Commission, and national health boards and councils, citing their handling of what it describes as vexatious antisemitic complaints against Jewish health professionals. The organisation is calling for all affected health professionals who have faced complaints of an antisemitic or anti-Zionist nature to submit their details to the AZHA website to join the litigation.
AZHA president Dr Karen Fink said the decision to litigate came after observing recent responses at Senate Estimates and reviewing decisions by the medical regulators.
“After observing the responses of AHPRA CEO Justin Untersteiner at Senate Estimates and reviewing recent decisions made by AHPRA and the national health boards and councils, we now understand that we have no option other than to litigate,” she said.
The organisation claims Jewish health professionals and their supporters have endured “menacing and vexatious complaints” that have been “grossly mismanaged” by the regulatory bodies.
At the recent Senate Estimates, Untersteiner the agency had received 188 notifications relating to 95 practitioners over the past two years. Around half were related to a complaint about antisemitism, and another half were about Islamophobia.
“I can give complete confidence that we’ve got no tolerance for discrimination and I feel confident that any Australian is able to go and get safe healthcare and not worry about discrimination, because we’re dealing with it,” he said.
Despite what AZHA describes as “exhaustive efforts to engage constructively with health ministers, regulators and medical colleges”, the organisation says its concerns have been dismissed with inadequate responses.
“We have been heartened by the strong financial, legal and political support we have received,” Fink said.
“We expect that this will be a lengthy exercise that will have a definitive conclusion.”
There is another organisation representing Jewish health care workers, the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation, which The AJN understands is not part of the proposed class action suit.