A taxpayer funded scheme meant to upskill Australian doctors instead bankrolled $23,000 watches, holidays in the French Alps, trips to Bali and Disneyland and Apple shopping sprees.<\/p>\n
An investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into South Australia\u2019s professional development fund has revealed extraordinary expenses claims filed by senior medics in the state.<\/p>\n
The taxpayer-funded scheme allows claims of up to $23,000 to be lodged each year for \u201cprofessional development activity costs\u201d and is open to consultants, medical practitioners and registrars.<\/p>\n
Between April 2025 and April 2026, SA Health spent $64m on the scheme.<\/p>\n
But an ICAC probe has revealed just some of the astonishing things medics have used the scheme to claim back for since its introduction.<\/p>\n
Some examples of these include:<\/p>\n
\u2022 A $23,000 watch, with the same medical officer claiming $49,000 for four watches over three years<\/p>\n
\u2022 A five-night trip to Disneyland for four people worth $3400<\/p>\n
\u2022 $23,000 in flights and accommodation in the French Alps to attend an onlineconference<\/p>\n
\u2022 A $12,000 wellness retreat in Bali<\/p>\n
Other lavish claims included a $7340 workbag, a $1260 fountain pen and $68,600 in Apple products, including four watches, five iPads and four mobile phones, from a single medical officer claim.<\/p>\n
ICAC commissioner Emma Townsend said there needed to be \u201cgreater clarity\u201d over what constituted professional development, amid the lavish claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that the lack of clarity has contributed to the wide range of claims identified during the evaluation, including examples that, on the surface, appear to blur the lines between professional and personal development,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOngoing professional development is critical to maintaining high standards of patient care, supporting workforce capability and ensuring practitioners keep pace with evolving clinical knowledge and practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, with significant public investment comes a responsibility to ensure those funds are used for their intended purpose and deliver value to the public health system and community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the investigation, ICAC made a series of recommendations to ensure the scheme is not abused.<\/p>\n
These centre on calls for greater clarity on what professional development includes and for a tighter grip to be placed on the approval process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs acknowledged by the commissioner\u2019s report, the vast majority of medical officers are appropriately using this funding for important professional development purposes,\u201d SA Health chief executive Robyn Lawrence said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, SA Health accepts all the recommendations outlined in the report, which will provide our medical officers with greater clarity over appropriate professional development spending and ultimately increase protection against corruption, misconduct and maladministration.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitial conversations with the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association took place last year with the aim of introducing a guideline to support line managers when considering the appropriateness of professional development applications. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis work was put on hold until the outcome of the ICAC review was known.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A taxpayer funded scheme meant to upskill Australian doctors instead bankrolled $23,000 watches, holidays in the French Alps,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50,4361,40175,190,40180,1665,18775,21770,40173,33073,40170,40184,40182,14410,9516,40167,40171,40185,33056,16397,40174,40169,5884,40172,40166,40183,40181,40168,40163,40176,40164,40162,40179,40161,40177,40165,40178],"class_list":["post-76933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps","tag-apple","tag-approval-process","tag-asia","tag-astonishing-things-medics","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bali","tag-claim-expenses","tag-david-hannant","tag-development-activity-costs","tag-emma-townsend","tag-extraordinary-expenses-claims","tag-fountain-pen","tag-indonesia","tag-lavish-claims","tag-line-managers","tag-medical-officers","tag-newswire-news","tag-oceania","tag-ongoing-professional-development","tag-people-worth","tag-professional-development","tag-professional-development-activity","tag-professional-development-applications","tag-professional-development-fund","tag-professional-development-purposes","tag-public-health-system","tag-robyn-lawrence","tag-senior-doctors","tag-south-australia","tag-south-australian-salaried-medical-officers-association","tag-south-eastern-asia","tag-supporting-workforce-capability","tag-tax-funded-scheme","tag-wellness-retreat","tag-wellness-retreats"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}