Don’t be fooled by these figures reported in today’s The Australian.
Anyone would think Australia’s hospitals are glowing institutions of patient safety. They are not. It is an illustration of hospitals’ dishonest reporting.
FRANCE –
French police investigating an anaesthesiologist in connection with multiple poisonings have added 17 new cases to their probe.
Doctor Frederic PECHIER, 47, was previously charged in 2017 in relation to 7 cases of poisoning public prosecutor Etienne Manteaux told reporters at a televised press conference Thursday, May 16, with the 24 total cases resulting in 9 deaths.
Pechier worked at two private clinics in Besancon, eastern France.
Read more reports from CNN and The Sun:
French doctor investigated in 24 cases of poisoning during surgery; 9 patients died
Doctor accused of poisoning patients so he could show off by saving them
LONDON –
An Australian-trained doctor whose “glittering” medical career came to an end in “disgrace” after she overcharged a member of the Brunei royal family by millions of dollars, has forfeited her right to practise in the UK.
Britain is the second country to take action against now ex-doctor Susan Lim May Lee, who graduated from Monash University’s medical school in 1979, with the Singapore Medical Council suspending her 7 years ago.
It was while working in Singapore that Ms LIM treated the Queen of Brunei’s sister. It was discovered she had added hidden mark-ups to invoices that resulted in the patient, who was terminally ill, being overcharged by more than AUD$15.7million (£8 million), according to the UK Medical Practitioners Tribunal.
After being confronted by Bruneian authorities, Ms Lim immediately reduced the invoices by half.
But in 2012, the Singapore Medical Council found her guilty of 94 counts of professional misconduct, including 83 counts of overcharging. She was also found guilty of adding mark-up on her fees charged by third-party doctors on her invoices.
Read more in the UK Medical Practitioners Tribunal BMJ 2019
Article from Australian Doctor by Heather Saxena.
GOSPORT, South East coast, England —
The hospital deaths scandal continues…
A new criminal investigation is to take place into the deaths of hundreds of patients who were given “dangerous” levels of painkillers at a hospital.
An inquiry found 456 patients died after being given opiate drugs at Gosport War Memorial Hospital between 1987 and 2001.
A review has since been carried out by Kent and Essex Police to assess if there was “sufficient new evidence”.
Relatives have been told a “full investigation” will begin.
Three previous investigations into 92 of the deaths by Hampshire Constabulary resulted in no charges being brought.
Assistant Chief Constable Nick Downing, head of serious crime at Kent and Essex Police, met relatives at a meeting in Fareham.
Speaking at a press conference afterwards, he promised a “thorough and independent” investigation with a range of offences, including murder, to be considered.
He said police would not be interviewing hospital staff but meeting families individually to collect statements on their relatives’ experiences of the hospital.
The Gosport Independent Review Panel report, published in June 2018, found there was a “disregard for human life” at the hospital.
It also found an “institutionalised regime” of prescribing and administering amounts of opiate medication that were not clinically justified.
The report said the quality of previous police investigations had been “consistently poor”.
It found whistleblowers and families were ignored as they attempted to raise concerns about the administration of medication on the wards, which was overseen by Dr Jane Barton.
Dr Barton retired after being found guilty by a medical panel of failings in her care of 12 patients at Gosport between 1996 and 1999.
In a statement last year, Dr Barton said she was a “hard-working doctor” who was “doing her best” for patients in a “very inadequately resourced” part of the NHS.
MEAG COMMENT: But doctor found enough resources to bump patients off.
READ MORE OF THE BBC NEWS:
HOBART, TASMANIA – Patients are dying and being injured because of deteriorating conditions at the Royal Hobart Hospital, emergency doctors say.
The department’s registrars have written a scathing no-holds-barred 5-page letter to management, saying they have “grave concerns” and can provide examples of “direct patient injury and death” because of worsening conditions and bed block.
Read more ABC News story:
Emergency doctors warn patients dying, conditions unsafe at Royal Hobart Hospital
SYDNEY
The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) – New South Wales’ answer to “healthcare watchdog” is dysfunctional. It should be shut down. It does not know how to bark.
How many cases is it stuffing up? This is the question.
It continually fails to appropriately assess hundreds of patients’ complaints because of “a dysfunctional workplace culture”, a whistleblower has claimed. But MEAG says it’s maladministration.
Fifteen years ago the then NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden, called for 9,000 cases to be re-assessed. This did not happen. MEAG made a substantial submission to the Walker Inquiry at the time but still the government did not act.
What happened to those 9,000 complaints? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Too many cases are not being looked at, dismissed without being investigated, i.e. real investigation, not a sideways glance.
As for its claim “Protecting Public Health and Safety” – a misnomer indeed. Fake news!
MEAG says shut it down now. It serves no purpose to both patients and doctors.
Read more of the ABC News Greg Miskelly’s story:
The NSW healthcare watchdog ‘dysfunction’ jeopardising patient safety, whistleblower claims
C. R. BARD Inc., one of the biggest manufacturers of vaginal mesh implants, is ending all production and marketing after years of campaigning by women around the world.
Why the decision was not made sooner is astonishing considering C. R. BARD Inc. ceased the use of certain mesh production in the USA 6 years ago.
An aged care home on the far New South Wales south coast is reviewing its procedures, after maggots were found in a resident’s head wound.
Staff at the Eden Bupa aged care facility will undergo additional training.
Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long tells Radio 2GB’s Ben Fordham “you couldn’t hear anything more appalling.”
“The government just cannot understand what is going on in nursing homes.
“Bupa is continually being sanctioned. Not just in Eden but across the states.”
“These instances need to stop.”
In a statement, the facility said they are working to ensure the resident receives appropriate care.
“Well, it’s not good enough Bupa. It’s not once. It’s repetitive. It’s “routine”. You’ve got your eyes closed to your failures in care.”
“If the general public can find out what’s going, how come your management can’t?” said Lorraine Long.
Dr Emil Shawky GAYED‘s malpractice was known to NSW Ministry of Health as far back as 25 years ago. The ministry let him loose on trusting women patients. These health bureaucrats deserve the sack. They’ll probably instead be ‘gonged’ for services to medical maladministration and malpractice.
How often do we have to read: “NSW Health system failed each of these women”. Heard this before? Yes, all too often. But what changes? Nothing. Why? Institutionalized indifference to human life.
What evil lurks within the NSW Ministry of Health to allow women, people for that, to be harmed and killed? As long as it didn’t happen to them.
Read more of The Guardian’s story:
CANBERRA —
If you knew what we know about breaches of medical record containment, you would OPT OUT without blinking.
Every transaction will be entered on My Health Record. Don’t believe government that it will have fortress-like security. Records are not secure now.
While this is an initiative for some peculiar reason,
next step will be an ID CARD. This is Big Brother collecting more
information on you. Hasn’t government got enough already? The nation’s
health as a whole in one basket… scary! And your DNA. The government
may start in years to come to profile you.
Insurance companies and Big Pharma will see this as a
treasure-trove of information they will seek to access for purported
research purposes. Governments are notorious for farming out such to the
private sector. Plus other sticky-beaks such as:
— Employers to deny you employment.
— Big Pharma to flog more drugs for you to take.
— Insurance companies to refuse to insure you.
Plus subpoenas served by:
— Medical defence for court cases.
— Insurance companies to deny your claims.
And remember our governments privatise anything they see
as a cash-cow such as our utilities, roads, hospitals, airports, ports,
electric light poles and wires, general post office, land titles office
and the rest.
Just think what a goody-bag our health records would be.
Don’t forget the many medical errors made every day.
Those errors will be transferred to your MY HEALTH RECORD and may kill
you.
Think about it. Make your decision wisely.
