Why Every Doctor Should Do A Law Degree.

“How many times will I be sued in my medical career?” , “Will that issue with Mrs Smith lead to me being sued?”,”Will the hospital administrator take action for an unfair complaint made against me?”, “am I paying enough indemnity insurance” or “should I really be paying as much as I am!!?” These are thoughts that are foremost in most doctor’s minds much of the time.

I have been in many sticky situations just by virtue of me being a doctor and advocating for my patients. Some times my advocacy has been aggressive especially when confronted with stupidity, ineptitude or malice. I put racism into the broad undifferentiated category of malice, together with prejudice of any kind. I have fought against idiotic bureaucracy in some jurisdictions, corruption and prejudice in others, financial bullying by banks and the Tax Offices of several jurisdictions on several continents, and blatant corporate and administrative bullying within the Health Industry of Australia, both for myself and on behalf of patients and as Counsel in South Africa. Africa is tough and will chew you up alive given half a chance. However, if there is any place on Earth that can inspire fear into its doctors, it’s good old Australia. Without a doubt one of the best places on the planet to live most of the time, but a traumatic experience for most foreign medical graduates a lot of the time. Not to say that Australia spares it own flesh and blood that are born and trained here, doctors of all race, sex, denomination, colour, or whatever descriptor, whether born here or not, are subject to biased, biggoted, unjust, expensive , soul-destroying, career ending administrative systems that are allowed to perpetuate in the administration of Health. From Medicare which operates like an insurance company with regards to manipulating doctors behaviour and preference towards cost cutting for Government, yet spending massive amounts on in-house lawyers, lobbyists, private consultants and private law firms, to the PSR which operates like a “star chamber” and employs doctors and lawyers to follow an agenda of claw backs regardless of the obvious flaws already, doctors should rightfully feel to threatened.

There are many risks to being a doctor. Being subjected to Violence or abuse, depression, anxiety, insomnia, substance abuse, bankruptcy, financial servitude, divorce, burnout, suicide, litigation and legal problems, health issues. Bullying and discrimination within the Health Sector is a special kind of torture that drives many doctors, and other unfortunate health workers from every discipline, to the brink and beyond in some cases.

I have endured more than my fair share of legal dilemmas through the practice of medicine in some extremely high risk areas. Doing a law degree after starting work as a GP in South Africa was not easy but certainly doable and has paid off many fold over. I worked 6 days a week as a GP and managed to put the time aside- usually late at night when my wife and 3 young sons were asleep. Again, it was not easy, but doable. I went a step further and did pupilage through the Pretoria Bar, got admitted as an advocate, did the National Bar Exam and started legal practice. Armed with insider knowledge into how the system of law was actually run emboldened me to challenge any injustice that I chose to, not only within the practice of law and medicine, but in life in general.

South Africa presented many unique challenges. These involved not only your life, but your families and your patients. Government ineptitude, corruption, violence, Corrupt financial institutions, discriminatory medical insurance companies, rascist and discriminatory insurance companies, an over zealous tax system and authority that targets doctors specifically, high litigation rate with a big no-win-no-fee industry, rascist and discriminatory patients and providers (including institutional) and a dysfunctional medical regulator and health authority. When the risk at a certain stage skyrocketed due to specific legal cases and business ventures, my wife and I moved to Australia.

I am forever grateful to the traditional owners of this great land for the welcome that my family and I have received. I am grateful to the great nation of Australia for providing a safe and beautiful and mostly fair place to live in. I do warn my kids though, “this is Australia, you guys are brown fellas, don’t let your guard down” and “don’t challenge a white cop with a gun”. Australia is a place so beautiful , that day to day rascism can often just be swept under the carpet if there was one. The Australian government and much of society deals with indigenous Australia as a non-entity. The way Australia deals with refugees is not only shocking but deserving of much criticism. The way Australia deals with foreign health workers is also fraught with problems.

Vexations notifications, administrative subterfuge, administrative bullying, jurisprudential bullying, litigation, reporting to a regulatory body, complaint to an employer, complaint to a health authority, complaint to a regulatory body, getting sued for medical negligence, subpoenas to appear in court, subpoena to coroners court, tax authority disputes, financial structure understanding, financial planning, matrimonial property law, law of succession and insurance law, medical indemnity insurance law, medical insurance law, income protection and superannuation, self managed super funds, any real estate transaction, any practice you buy or contract with, any medical company you start, buy, contract with or consult for requires some legal knowledge and acumen to deal with effectively. Usually anything complicated has to have a lawyer involved. They have insurance in case they screw up same as doctors, but they don’t have anywhere as much other stuff to deal with. They charge a lot. One thing doctors will find out quickly is that when finance, law or money is involved - no one has any sympathy for doctors. Doctors are considered privileged, rich and deserving targets for all sorts of bullying. From senior nurses to Hospital and Government authorities, to other doctors, the medical field can sometimes be cannabilistic in the way that bullying chomps through the susceptible and weak. It’s the same environment that weakens previously proud, hardworking, resolute and strong individuals and applied to all not just doctors.

I started work on a book with the same title as this essay sometime ago. I hope to inspire many doctors to do a law degree. Any University Deans that read this please contact me if your institution is able to set up some sort of a law course/diploma/degree specifically for medical doctors. I hope to empower many doctors to be self represented litigants and to challenge injustice against you, your family and friends or anyone deserving and needing of help, and your patients. As a doctor you will have conflict with banks, the tax office, financial planners and financial institutions, employers, You can do it without a law degree, but with a law degree you should be able to protect yourself better.

I intend putting together examples of real life Medicolegal issues that I have dealt with, with word documents of all work I would have done on the case accessible by a subscription if the case was relevant to an issue at hand. I’m trying to make the idea financially viable to take the time to dedicate to turning it into a Medicolegal Education portal and Self Represented Doctor Assist Tool. Any doctors or lawyers interested in the project please send an expression of interest through www.navinnaidoo.com

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