Doctors are increasingly unwilling to take on child protection work because of a soaring number of complaints against them by parents, according to a survey published on Monday.
As a consequence, children could be put at risk, said the report’s author.
Nearly 14 percent of pediatricians questioned by the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health said they had been the subject of complaints, sometimes threatening, after becoming involved in child abuse investigations.
Of those doctors, almost one-third -- 29 percent -- said they were reluctant to deal with such cases out of fear for their professional reputations and, in some cases, the potential of personal threats.
The results show doctors are thinking twice about sounding the alarm in potential child abuse cases, said the study’s author Dr Neil McIntosh.
“It is a shame but if there is any suggestion of doubt, maybe the child will be in danger,” McIntosh said.
Doctors targeted
The survey found the number of yearly complaints against doctors had increased from less than 20 in 1995 to more than 100 in 2003.
Of the 11 percent of complaints that were referred to the General Medical Council, the doctors’ regulatory body, none had been upheld.
McIntosh said a number of Web sites were to blame for convincing parents they should target doctors whom they believe have wrongly accused them of harming their children.
“There is now a coordinated campaign against pediatricians coming from a number of Web sites and when child protection issues come up, there is a group who gets hold of parents and says you should complain -- and sometimes this is not just complaining, this is threatening,” he told Reuters.
The survey of 4,776 pediatricians comes three months after a mother had her life sentence quashed in a landmark ruling in which an appeals court ruled the expert evidence that led to her conviction of killing her two children was unsafe.
Angela Cannings, 40, had been diagnosed with Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, in which parents harm their children in order to call attention to themselves.
Last week, a mother also diagnosed with the same disorder lost a court battle for the return of her daughter from care after judges unanimously decided she had tried to harm the child.
