WA peak doctor body hits out at premier's request to report potentially dangerous patients

As Western Australian Premier Roger Cook scrambles to deal with the state's domestic violence problems, doctors are slamming a government plan they call "impossible".

Western Australia's peak body for doctors has hit out at demands every patient who poses a potential danger be reported to police. 

The state's branch of the Australian Medical Association said it was "unreasonable" for them to be expected to predict which angry patients could be killers.

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"To expect doctors to be able to predict which patients might be violent offenders is really impossible and it's an unreasonable expectation," AMA WA president Dr Michael Page told 9News Perth.

Cook wants all public agencies to talk to each other as a normal matter of course.

"It's a question of whether they present an emotional or cognitive state which suggests they may be a danger to themselves or a danger to someone else," Cook said.

But the AMA said it is only in exceptional circumstances they will tell police if they are worried about someone.

"If we were reporting every patient with an emotional or cognitive disturbance in the hospital to police, we wouldn't be able to do anything else," Page said.

It follows revelations a hospital worker made to 9News that Mark Bombara, who shot dead Jennifer and Gretl Petelczyc, had a cyst on his brain. 

"This man from looking at his current health condition had a very compromised and vulnerable brain," a worker said.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).