Top doc warning for AFL

A TOP medico says rules allowing AFL clubs to dispose of player medical records after seven seasons are fraught with danger.

Leading sports physician Dr Peter Larkins said professional sporting clubs needed stricter record-keeping systems “in the current climate of litigation and concussion”.

A damages claim launched by former Tiger Ty Zantuck over a spree of painkilling jabs administered to him between 2001-03 has been hampered by the absence of any club medical records before 2004.

“I think every club should be put on notice,” Larkins said yesterday.

“Clubs and club doctors need to have a system in place — and we’re not talking about thousands of files here, we’re only talking about dozens of files — where those records are kept for much longer than the standard person in the street who has had a flu shot at a general practice.

“The law of the medical world for a patient is seven years, but AFL is a bit of a different circumstance because of the way things go with postcareer problems, whether it’s knees or hips or an aggrieved player.

“When it comes to the head, who knows what sort of cases are going to be brought against the AFL over the next decade.

“So I’m surprised that clubs aren’t more in tune with that.

“There are many current examples of AFL players who have had multiple surgeries or injury-plagued careers, and I suspect clubs would be conscious of potential disability claims from them later in life, so records must be thorough and preserved.”

Larkins declined to discuss the Zantuck issue but said “the concept of blocking pain and throwing needles was rampant in the 1990s”.

“I’ve always been very careful talking about medical practises at AFL level. It’s really frontline medicine and there are lots of compromises made in sport,” he said.

“It’s a different world and there’s still a very fine line with doctors trying to keep blokes on the park, and you’ve got to remember some of the players are pushing for this, too.”