Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (20:52): (2351) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Health. Given the deeply distressing accounts we have heard from women caught up in the investigation into obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Simon Gordon, the action I seek is for the minister to explain what steps she is taking to satisfy herself that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s current notification protocols to hospitals are sufficient to protect patient safety when serious allegations have been raised. At least a hundred women have come forward and shared their deeply disturbing accounts of their experience with Dr Gordon. The allegations reported include Dr Gordon performing surgery for severe endometriosis even when pathology later showed little or no disease. Some women have had their reproductive organs removed, including their ovaries and uterus, and this is incredibly distressing. It is extensive and serious surgery and will have lifelong impacts on those women who have been impacted. I acknowledge that AHPRA in particular is a federal body, but the minister cannot simply handball responsibility to the feds on this one. While the minister cannot direct AHPRA, she remains responsible for the oversight of the health system. I understand that AHPRA may have been notified of the hospital’s concerns more than two years ago. It seems incongruous that there is no system that warns health services of serious concerns regarding visiting medical officers that have been reported to the regulator, and in this case multiple reports were made to AHPRA.

This case raises so many concerns that demand action to restore Victorians’ faith in the health system. When the dust settles, the minister must ensure hospitals are immediately informed when a credentialed visiting medical officer is under investigation by AHPRA. If hospitals are not routinely notified, the minister must fix that glaring gap before it puts more patients at risk. When it comes to this matter, the minister must ensure AHPRA’s investigation properly hears and considers the voices of those women affected. Finally, the minister must deliver greater transparency and coordination between regulators and health services so that breakdowns in communication can never again undermine patient safety or public confidence. Victorians are entitled to trust the health system that cares for them. When failures like this occur, that trust is shattered. It is your job as minister to restore it, and it is your responsibility, along with other state and federal ministers, to see that the regulator AHPRA is also doing its job.