Doctors who sexually abuse children in NSW are never banned for life, while only the most serious cases would attract a 10-year suspension, a federal inquiry has been told.
In extraordinary royal commission evidence heard in Sydney on Friday, it was revealed NSW regulators had been fielding complaints about Sydney GP John Rolleston's history of molestation since 1992.
However, the now 79-year-old was not deregistered until 2013 - two years after he was jailed on 30 counts of sexually assaulting young boys.
Rolleston is now on parole and has cancer.
The royal commission into child sexual abuse was told he had signed a statutory declaration swearing to Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) officials that he would never reapply for a licence.
If he changes his mind he is entitled to reapply in 2017, even though the application would be vigorously opposed.
Kieran Pehm, the HCCC head, said five years was considered a long ban but in serious cases the watchdog would seek a 10-year ban.
"I can't think of a ban longer than 10 years," he said.
The royal commission has been unravelling the complex systems under which health regulators in NSW operate by exploring what happened to complaints made by seven men molested by Rolleston when they were boys.
Over three days the commission heard of long delays in HCCC investigations and very poor treatment of complainants.
On Friday Mr Pehm unreservedly apologised to the abuse survivors who gave evidence of being fobbed off for years and then ignored by the HCCC.
"The commission (HCCC) made this much more difficult for them in an enormously difficult situation," he said.
He invited them to address HCCC staff on the impact of the insensitive handling of complaints.
The HCCC first received a complaint about Rolleston in 1998 but it was revealed on Friday that the Medical Board of NSW (now known as the Medical Council) had been receiving complaints since 1992.
Peter Procopis, president of the Medical Council of NSW, confirmed there were complaints to the board about Rolleston's sex abuse in 1992 and the GP was already under a cloud because he was deregistered in 1987 for fraud offences.
He got his licence back and in 2009, when nine people alleged serious criminal sex offences, conditions were put on the GP's practice.
Professor Procopis was asked why Rolleston was not suspended in 2009 and was just ordered not to treat patients between the ages of 11 and 18 and to have a chaperone when he practised.
"The view at that time, rightly or wrongly, was that one should put on conditions which would protect the public, but not maximum conditions," he said.
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