xenophobic vote, page-12

Opps

And while the entire country has had its attention diverted by this issue, saving forests and other leftie favorites their partners have completely dropped the ball.

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Dr Death's body count climbs
By Amanda Watt and Tony Keim
May 25, 2005
From:
THE death toll of "Dr Death" Jayant Patel could reach at least 87, with revelations yesterday that Queensland Health investigators had uncovered another 20 deaths linked to the disgraced surgeon that needed review.

Health inquiry commissioner Tony Morris, QC, received a letter from Premier Peter Beattie early yesterday detailing the new cases which he read into the record at the start of the inquiry's second day of hearings.
There is no evidence as yet that Dr Patel was culpable in the deaths.

Files relating to a further 20 patients who were treated by Dr Patel but then transferred to other hospitals for ongoing care will also be reviewed.

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The new cases come on top of the 67 deaths Queensland Health indicated last week they had formally linked to Dr Patel.

The revelation preceded a dramatic day of evidence at the inquiry in which star witness Toni Hoffman – the whistleblower nurse who first raised concerns about Dr Patel and Bundaberg Hospital – broke down several times in the stand as she detailed more surgical horror stories.

Ms Hoffman said it was common knowledge among staff and the community that Dr Patel was dangerous, but for months she was the only one willing to speak out.

She said the hospital's chief anaesthetist Dr Martin Carter was the first person to dub Dr Patel "Dr Death" – a nickname he gave him "very early" in the piece.

"They (staff) would say, 'If I have an accident on the weekend fly me out to Brisbane, don't let Dr Patel touch me,' " she said.

Ms Hoffman said she and her fellow nurses became so scared for the patients in the intensive care unit after watching so many people die at Dr Patel's hands they took to hiding patients.

She said her repeated attempts in 2003 and 2004 to bring Dr Patel's incompetence to the hospital executive's attention were ignored or thwarted.

"All the nurses in intensive care were seeing all these patients die and we could not do anything," she said.

"We just thought, what on earth can we do to stop this man?

"We took to hiding patients and telling them they should ask to be sent to Brisbane; we were telling them things we shouldn't be saying."

Ms Hoffman also alleged:

• Negative outcomes for patients, including death, would often fall into a "black hole" because there was no procedure for collating data.

• Dr Patel and at least one other doctor falsified entries on death certificates in an apparent bid to cover up botched surgeries.

• Nursing staff were threatened with the sack and two years' jail if they spoke out.

• Dr Patel performed complex surgery, for which he was earlier banned in the US, on a cancer patient who later died.

• Dr Patel yelled at the wife of a dying man not to cry at his hospital bedside.

• Ms Hoffman was asked to babysit a patient of another doctor who needed life-saving surgery in Brisbane to prevent Dr Patel from conducting the surgery in Bundaberg.

The inquiry was yesterday shown an e-mail to Ms Hoffman from one of the intensive care nurses from last August, in which she described the hospital as a "hell-hole" after complaining about hospital management and staffing levels.

* Bundaberg Hospital Commission of Inquiry website