On a quiet Wednesday morning, on the 27th floor of a sleek building overlooking Sydney Harbour, a group of doctors from one of Australia\u2019s oldest medical colleges were preparing to vote in an extraordinary general meeting.<\/p>\n
The meeting\u2019s agenda was an unusual one but, even so, no one expected the police to show up.<\/p>\n
But their arrival signalled a climax to an issue that has plagued the Royal Australasian College of Physicians for months.<\/p>\n
In one room was Prof Jennifer Martin, the president and board chair. The college\u2019s members were being asked to vote on whether to remove her from her position five weeks early.<\/p>\n
In another room, on her laptop, sat Dr Sharmila Chandran, who was voted president-elect in 2024 and was due to take over Martin\u2019s role next month, and whose husband had called the police.<\/p>\n
Sharmila Chandran, the RACP\u2019s president-elect. Photograph: Andrew Campbell\/Melbourne Headshot Company<\/p>\n
The pair had long disagreed on the former\u2019s push for constitutional reform, to separate the roles of president and board chair in line with other medical colleges.<\/p>\n
The board \u2013 whose directors work in a voluntary capacity \u2013 has been beset by months of conflict. The infighting has been lambasted as \u201ca royal mess\u201d, an \u201cabsolute shitshow\u201d, and \u201ca trainwreck in slow motion\u201d by frustrated physicians across the country, culminating in last week\u2019s public dispute and requests for intervention by the national charities regulator. It highlights deep fractures in a wealthy and historically powerful organisation riven by longstanding dysfunction, which is underscored by wider cultural problems within medicine.<\/p>\n
The RACP comprises more than 32,000 physicians in Australia and New Zealand across 33 specialties, including cardiologists, gastroenterologists, haematologists and neurologists. To become accredited as a specialist in any of these fields, trainee doctors have no choice but to pay thousands of dollars each year in membership fees.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s vote to remove Martin as president was requisitioned by at least 100 RACP members, who cited board instability, and poor oversight of expenditure among reasons they had \u201clost confidence in the leadership of Martin\u201d.<\/p>\n
Each board chair is elected by RACP members to serve a two-year tenure first as president-elect, then a further two years as president. Martin became RACP president in 2024 and was due to finish in the role in May.<\/p>\n
\u2018Our college now has two competing boards\u2019<\/p>\n
Conflicting accounts paint a spectacular picture of last Wednesday\u2019s chaotic gathering, which began with a disagreement over who would run the meeting.<\/p>\n
Martin, as president, sought to chair it, according to a statement sent to college members on Wednesday afternoon from the board \u2013 which at that point consisted of Martin, Chandran and two others. The statement claimed Chandran allegedly \u201cspoke over the chair and did not stop\u201d.<\/p>\n
She \u201ccontinued the meeting in a location in a closed room with the chair, the CEO, other directors and the interim company secretary excluded\u201d, the board alleged.<\/p>\n
Chandran issued her own statement hours later, saying: \u201cGiven that the motion concerned the removal of the president, it was not appropriate for the president, Jennifer Martin, to chair the meeting because of her conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n She says she was rehearsing for the meeting when she felt intimidated by others\u2019 behaviour, telling Guardian Australia her husband called the police as a result.<\/p>\n NSW police said officers had been sent in response to \u201creports of a person attending the meeting \u2026 Police spoke with several people and it was determined no crime had been committed.\u201d<\/p>\n Officers remained in attendance when the EGM began at noon. Chandran says she moved to a separate room to conduct the meeting from her laptop, and that her husband \u201chad to stand at the door\u201d.<\/p>\n Only 4,260 RACP members voted, with a majority of those (2,179) in favour of ousting Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results were not correctly scrutineered, and the board believes the vote is invalid,\u201d it said last Wednesday. The board\u2019s view was that \u201cMartin remains the chair\u201d.<\/p>\n Chandran, in her own email, said the board\u2019s statement \u201cwas not authorised by me (chair of RACP) and does not represent the official position of the RACP\u201d.<\/p>\n By Wednesday evening, Martin had been removed as a director in documents lodged with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. A day later, three new directors were added to the board, according to documents lodged with the ACNC and Asic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a legally constitutional board so we can and we will move forward,\u201d Chandran says.<\/p>\n But another email from \u201cthe RACP board\u201d, sent from an official college address last Thursday evening, said there had been \u201cno change to the composition of the RACP board\u201d, which it said still consisted of four people, including Martin.<\/p>\n Five days later, on Tuesday, the other two board members \u2013 Dr Nick Buckmaster and Dr Janak de Zoysa \u2013 issued a statement to RACP members describing a \u201cconstitutional crisis\u201d. \u201cOur college now has two competing boards,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n They said the charities watchdog had sought a meeting with the RACP \u201cdue to significant concerns\u201d. \u201cWe again request that the ACNC suspend the board and appoint acting responsible entities to permit to the college to determine, free of interference, the legality of the recent EGM.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian Medical Council, which accredits specialist medical colleges, has also expressed concerns. In a statement to Guardian Australia on Wednesday, it said: \u201cThe AMC\u2019s accreditation standards include requirements for good governance. The AMC is concerned that the RACP may not be meeting these standards and is engaging with the college to seek urgent answers to the current issues.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Doctors live in a world of constant competition\u2019<\/p>\n Doctors have been blasted with dozens of emails from the RACP. \u201cWe\u2019re bombarded with endless emails documenting these catfights \u2013 it\u2019s embarrassing, it\u2019s absurd,\u201d says a paediatric trainee in Victoria who did not want to be named. \u201cHow is this the most important thing that they have to do given the current state of the healthcare system?\u201d<\/p>\n Last August the board informed RACP members that it had passed a vote of no confidence in Chandran. Guardian Australia understands that six of the board\u2019s 10 directors resigned over the no-confidence motion and how it was communicated to members.<\/p>\n The board communique accused Chandran of engaging \u201cin adversarial and disrespectful behaviour\u201d and contributing \u201cto a toxic culture at the board table\u201d.<\/p>\n On 21 September, Chandran wrote to members \u201creject[ing] these damaging claims completely\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI have repeatedly raised concerns about bullying and harassment in the college,\u201d she wrote, revealing that she had lodged an application for an anti-bullying order with the Fair Work Commission last May.<\/p>\n Chandran has since dropped the case<\/a>, citing frustration with delays in the tribunal\u2019s process. \u201cI don\u2019t think Fair Work is very fair \u2026 it\u2019s not serving the Australian community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n In March the RACP was found to be in breach of workplace health and safety laws, receiving a SafeWork NSW notice<\/a> stating it did not \u201cadequately manage the risk of harmful behaviour \u2026 within the operations of the board\u201d. A request in the same month for the ACNC to dissolve the board was unsuccessful<\/a>.<\/p>\n The RACP\u2019s main office in Australia, in a historic building in Macquarie Street, Sydney. A new office with harbour views opened nearby in 2023. Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n The RACP turmoil is a reflection of a \u201cculture of doctors that\u2019s hidden from the public\u201d, says one physician who does not want to be named.<\/p>\n \u201cDoctors live in a world of constant competition,\u201d she says. \u201cThat power struggle, that attitude of \u2018I will destroy you before you destroy me\u2019 \u2026 You can\u2019t have a conflict between two people eat up in an entire organisation or a profession like this, unless this was truly part of its culture.\u201d<\/p>\n Last Wednesday\u2019s vote to oust Martin was the fifth EGM in six months. Two of the previous four meetings were attempts to remove Chandran as president-elect and board director, resolutions which were overwhelmingly voted down by members.<\/p>\n At these meetings, Chandran says, \u201cI was professional, I was respectful. I came, listened to the vote, accepted the vote, and walked out.\u201d<\/p>\n After reading about Wednesday\u2019s gathering, Prof Ron Grunstein at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, joked that \u201cperhaps the late Jerry Springer should have chaired the meeting\u201d.<\/p>\n Grunstein, who has been an RACP member since 1987, says the infighting distracts from the main role of the college, which he sees as \u201cto train the next generation of physicians, maintain standards and try and make sure we\u2019re represented with government\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are just disenchanted, and given an opportunity to vote with their feet and leave, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they do.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markThe terrible thing is that the trainees have no choice. They are bonded to this dysfunctional college in order to get the outcome that they desire for their career. It\u2019s just an insoluble messLuke Gaffney, general physician<\/p>\n Since October 2024, federal legislation changes have meant specialists recognised as fellows no longer need to be members of a medical college to practise \u2013 and can fulfil their continuing professional development requirements via other means.<\/p>\n For Dr Luke Gaffney, a general physician in Queensland, the \u201cabsolute shitshow\u201d of RACP infighting prompted him to leave. \u201cIt was this endless stream of extraordinary general meetings that were being called, and the realisation that I had no interest in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so childish, it\u2019s so unprofessional,\u201d he says. \u201cThe irony is that they don\u2019t even know that I haven\u2019t paid my annual renewal fees, and they continue to send me emails every week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A self-aggrandising delusion\u2019<\/p>\n The five EGMs in the last six months \u2013 three of which were held on 31 October \u2013 were estimated by the RACP board to have cost at least $640,000 in total.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to pay money for this accreditation in a college that seems to be just wasting the funds on these EGMs and arguments,\u201d says an advanced trainee who estimates she has spent at least $20,000 in membership fees.<\/p>\n Junior doctors must complete three years of basic training and three to four years of advanced training before they qualify as a specialist physician. Annual membership for trainees amounts to $4,000 a year. They also pay the college to sit their mandatory exams.<\/p>\n \u2018Physicians have been fed up with \u2026 hungry power struggle nonsense for the better part of a decade,\u2019 a Victorian fellow says. Photograph: Penny Stephens\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cIn an exam year, I easily spent $10,000 in college fees,\u201d another physician says. \u201cI\u2019ve had friends commit suicide. I\u2019ve moved 10 times during the course of just my advanced training.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaffney says: \u201cThe terrible thing is that the trainees have no choice. They are bonded to this dysfunctional college in order to get the outcome that they desire for their career. It\u2019s just an insoluble mess.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Jolie Lawrence, a paediatrician, says: \u201cA lot of the reason people feel hesitant about leaving the college is because it leaves trainees in the lurch. You have to be a fellow of the RACP to supervise trainees.\u201d<\/p>\n The RACP is a registered charity that generated $87.3m in revenue<\/a> in 2024 \u2013 $73.8m from membership fees and examination costs. It had more than 400 full-time employees, and logged $87.4m in expenses, including $55.8m in employee expenses and $8.8m in professional and consulting fees.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [trainee] supervisors work for free. The examiners work for free. The people who set the curriculum and [on] committees work for free. So what do these 400 people do?\u201d one RACP member asks. She describes the college as \u201cquite obsolete now\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a self-aggrandising delusion that has taken hold of this college for many, many years. I think the government has to say: actually, we don\u2019t need you.\u201d<\/p>\n The RACP has been beset by reports of dysfunction<\/a> for years. In 2018 a catastrophic technical glitch during an exam<\/a> left hundreds of trainee doctors distressed and forced to resit at a later date. In 2019 the RACP was put on notice<\/a> by the charities watchdog over multiple concerns including inappropriate management of charitable funds.<\/p>\n \u201cPhysicians have been fed up with \u2026 hungry power struggle nonsense for the better part of a decade<\/a>,\u201d a Victorian fellow says. \u201cIt\u2019s a royal mess.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need fewer committees, we need less professional staff, we do not need to have an office overlooking Sydney Harbour,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Another agrees: \u201cWe\u2019ve been watching this trainwreck in slow motion for a long time now.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions are now being asked about president-elect nominees for the 2026 election, for which online voting closed on Tuesday. No candidates are women.<\/p>\n Among the nominees are Prof Nikolai Petrovsky, who has previously been criticised for advocating for his own Covid-19 vaccine<\/a> to be approved for use in Australia without making publicly available substantial peer-reviewed clinical evidence to support its efficacy. He has previously said claims Covax-19\u2019s efficacy were unsubstantiated was \u201can outrageous claim\u201d.<\/p>\n Another candidate is Dr Phillip Morris, whose nomination lists Chandran as proposer, was in 2022 part of a group that advocated<\/a> \u201cfor the medically supervised use of ivermectin-based combinations for the prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19\u201d \u2013 after gold-standard research<\/a> had found that the antiparasitic drug did not lower the incidence of Covid-19 hospital admissions.<\/p>\n The RACP declined to respond to detailed questions from Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a quiet Wednesday morning, on the 27th floor of a sleek building overlooking Sydney Harbour, a group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-637720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}