The woman who has been studying our medical regulator for decades just shocked me to my core.

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Marie Bismark, a professor at the University of Melbourne and a doctor herself, has just one piece of advice after years of research.

Never go to the doctor by yourself. She has a husband and three adult children - if anyone needs to go to the doctor, there is a family roster set up so you never have to walk alone into a medical practice.

She's been researching how the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and the National Boards work for decades. Their mission? To ensure that Australia's registered health practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practise. But it's hardly failproof.

Bismarck's advice comes following the horrific stories broadcast this week by the ABC's Louise Milligan and her team as well as the shocking stories in Nine newspapers. In case you missed it, young women, very young women, had invasive, unnecessary surgery. And, no, I don't mean cosmetic this and that. I mean the kind of surgery which removes ovaries and in some cases, the uteruses, of women as young as 21. The ABC described the doctor as a renowned Melbourne surgeon who "repeatedly removed tissue and organs from young women for 'severe' endometriosis when pathology showed they had little or no trace of the disease".

Little trace of the disease. Absolutely heartbreaking.

And yes, Simon Gordon's work prompted multiple complaints by clinicians and patients to hospital management and medical regulators. Nevertheless he persisted. He's retired now, apparently. At least I can't find him on the list of practitioners.

Milligan's story was terrifying. Complaints ignored, even complaints of fellow practitioners. Young women maimed.

What happens when we feel as if our medical professionals are letting us down? Bismark describes AHPRA as a system set up in order to protect patients. It's an avenue........

© Canberra Times