Mills Christopher D
Consultant Physician, West Gippsland Health Care Group; Interventional Gastroenterologist, Gippsland Specialist Group; Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Victoria.
J Law Med. 2021 Mar;28(2):475-491.
Should a written reflection about regrets be part of the private life of a doctor - or of any health care practitioner - or something that can be used in the public domain when things do go wrong? This article examines the tenability of reflective practice in Australia after the Bawa-Garba cases, outlining the options for the future of reflective practice, and assessing the options ranging from maintaining the current status quo to protecting the use of reflections via absolute legal privilege. In particular, this article explores the value of reflective practice in the broader context, weighing up which of the options for change to reflective practice bring with it the greatest enhancement to public safety. This work concludes by suggesting a potential method for allowing the continued safe implementation of reflective practice by stakeholder groups: briefly considering the novel proposition in the Williams Review that could be adopted in Australia.
