A proposed national accreditation scheme, being considered by federal parliament, will make it mandatory for practitioners to report others they fear are placing the public at risk.
Reportable conduct includes a physical or mental impairment affecting a doctor's ability to practise or a departure from accepted professional standards, as well as drug and alcohol abuse or sexual misconduct.
The Medical Indemnity Industry Association of Australia, which represents 75 per cent of all insured doctors, has rejected the plan, saying it will only serve to conceal problems.
"A statutory duty to report is likely to create a punitive atmosphere and a culture of fear among practitioners ... and potentially drive problems underground," the association's chief executive Ellen Edmonds-Wilson told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
One doctor committed suicide in December 2008 after he felt unable to seek help.
"The doctor specifically wrote about these concerns in a suicide letter," Edmonds-Wilson said, adding that the health of doctors, not just patients, needed be taken into account.
The association wants spouses, practising doctors and health advisory services exempted from any potential mandatory reporting laws.
Labor senator Claire Moore said there remained an overriding public belief that doctors protected one another, especially in the wake of surgeon Jayant Patel's case at Bundaberg.
The public needed to be reassured there were adequate safeguards in place to protect patients, she said.
Source: AAP NewsWire