Some years ago an “eminent” surgeon operated on both my...

Some years ago an “eminent” surgeon operated on both my knees.

The surgery did nothing for my knees so I went to another specialist. The second specialist wrote me a letter confirming that the first specialist was negligent and should never have performed the operations on my knees because they were outdated techniques that had proved to be unsuccessful. However, that did not stop the first surgeon from charging me $8,000 for out of pocket expenses. That same surgeon was doing this procedure to about 20 people per week and in doing so was earning $120,000 per week.

I decided to make an official complaint to the Australian healthcare complaints commission about the first doctor and they found the first doctor was negligent on two grounds. However, the first doctor only received a warning and no further action was taken against the first doctor. I also complained to Medicare and to my private health insurer and again no disciplinary action was taken against the first doctor.

When is the government( both Labor and Liberal) going to wake up and take some real disciplinary action against these doctors that are clearly committing a fraud on Medicare and private health insurance.

I really believe that if they stop this type of conduct that private health insurance might actually go down in price significantly.