Dr Sandra Gaffney learned on March 2 that her registration had lapsed, leaving 20 patients with appointments that day stranded - even though she had submitted the necessary paperwork.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has since re-instated her, apologised for the “isolated case” caused by “human error” and attempted to restore confidence, but the doctor with more than

30 years’ experience will take action.

Dr Gaffney plans to make a submission to a Senate inquiry into the new agency, which not only affected her, but has also struggled to cope with registering 500,000 medical and health professionals.

Dubbo Family Doctors - where Dr Gaffney practices - and Dubbo Medical and Allied Health Group in December reported six-month delays in the arrival of new doctors to their practices because of problems with the AHPRA.

Dr Gaffney was aware of hold-ups since AHPRA was established in July to assume the role of state medical boards.

She posted her registration renewal forms in December before their mid-January due date and even contacted AHPRA, which confirmed receipt of her application.

It was only on March 2 that she learnt of her registration lapse because her patients’ Medicare claims were refused - she stopped working immediately.

It is illegal for unregistered practitioners to work and neither they nor their patients are eligible for Medicare rebates, health insurance rebates or medical indemnity coverage.

On March 4 she received a letter from Medicare saying AHPRA had advised she no longer held national registration effective from February 18.

“The two things that upset me the most was that I was not notified (by AHPRA) and was committing a criminal offence, and when I did find out, I was not able to provide continuity of care for patients,” Dr Gaffney said.

Although most patients were able to see doctors in the

practice, Dr Gaffney, who at the time had 58 patients in aged-care homes, was not on hand at a critical point.

“I was unable to respond to the calls of nursing homes and one of my patients became critically ill,” she said.

“A colleague saw her and arranged care.

“She died and that was expected, (but) I was disappointed not to be able to fulfil my commitment to her in the end.”

Dr Gaffney’s registration was ultimately renewed and backdated and she received an apology from the AHPRA state manager on March 23.

Although the apology was accepted and was “good to have” Dr Gaffney was not satisfied with the “human error” explanation offered by AHPRA.

“It was a human error on top of a cumbersome, incompetent system, which allowed the human error to have that kind of impact, that otherwise it would not have had,” she said.

Dr Gaffney has had communication with Parkes MP Mark Coulton and submissions to the Senate health inquiry are due on April 14.

“Mark Coulton’s office will email the details required and I will endeavour to present the facts of the case,” she said.

The Daily Liberal contacted AHPRA yesterday and a spokeswoman maintained there had been no widespread problem in renewing the registration of 22,000 doctors in NSW. “This is an unfortunate, isolated case and AHPRA regrets the impact on the doctor and her patients,” she said.

“We have apologised directly to the doctor and taken steps to correct the issue internally.

“In this case, human error meant standard operating procedures were not followed and the consequence caused unacceptable distress to the doctor and her patients.

“The doctor’s registration record has been adjusted to reflect that there was actually no period in which she was not registered.

“Medicare has been advised and understands that all affected patients are entitled to the appropriate rebate.

“AHPRA has invested considerable resources into the registration renewal process and there is now no backlog in applications for registration renewal.”