[Disciplinary cases against psychiatrists and medical residents, 2020-2023]

Recent years, there has been increasing attention to disciplinary law, both in (mental) healthcare and in society. Specific quantitative data are limitedly available.

Gaining insight into disciplinary jurisprudence, particularly the number/type of complaints, concerning psychiatrists and medical residents working in psychiatry.

Descriptive retrospective study. All published decisions of regional disciplinary tribunals from the period 2020-2023 concerning psychiatrists and psychiatric medical residents were examined.

During the research period, regional disciplinary tribunals handled 190 unique disciplinary complaints; an average of 47.5 per year. 176 complaints concerned a psychiatrist and 14 complaints a medical resident. Most complaints were about ‘incorrect treatment/wrong diagnosis’, ‘other complaints’, or ‘incorrect statement or report’. 15.3% resulted in a sanction, mainly warnings.

Over the past four years, there have been fewer disciplinary complaints annually against psychiatrists and psychiatric medical assistants compared to the five years before that. The nature of the complaints has remained largely unchanged, but fewer complaints resulted in a sanction. This exploratory analysis suggests the need for periodic follow-up research.