NEWS: 'Dr. Death' Inquiry to Examine 67 Deaths

An inquiry into how an Indian-trained doctor was allowed to practice freely in Australia despite a 20 year history of negligence and botched operations in two U.S. states is set to begin Monday. Jayant Patel was given permission to practice medicine in Queensland state in 2003, despite a string of failed operations and surgical malpractice claims in Oregon and New York. During his subsequent two-year tenure at Bundaberg Base Hospital, 67 patients died. The Medical Board of Queensland alleges Patel falsified his application to practice in Australia by removing his disciplinary history, but acknowledges that it failed to check his application against records in the United States.



There is more to the story then just malpractice; we now have the Australians asking for the resignation of their Prime Minister. Why you ask? When Doctor Patel learned of the pending investigation at Easter he fled the country at the expense of the Australian taxpayers that is why. Queensland Health authorized Dr Patel's one-way airfare from Australia to the US, a day after his contract was terminated. The business-class ticket cost nearly $3,500. Patel has since believed to have fled the US to India, but that has not been confirmed.

What bothers me about this whole issue is the fact that NY, Red flagged him as did Oregon; yet he managed to go to Australia and practice there. Kind of makes people wonder if hospitals actually check out the doctors they are hiring.

I am trying to trace the descrepancies between the AP figures of 14 deaths at this time and assume the differance may have been a typo since the majority of the stories are showing the figure of 67 deaths, that is why I used the larger number in my intro.


Related News Links:
au.news.yahoo.com
asia.news.yahoo.com
www.theaustralian.news.com.au





[edit on 5/22/2005 by shots]

Personally I think Dr Death is too strong, more like Dr Incompetant Idiot who doesn't know the difference between a Scapel and a Screwdriver. Of course that is just my assumption, but you are right. With the shortage of MD's it could force hospitols to cut corners when making new hires. I hope this issue is fixed so it will never happen again, but know us humans it's probably still going on somewhere and will always continue. The best we can do is be vigilent and run checks and tests on all foreign MDs who immigrate for work.

It's stories like this that make me really sick. My father was killed three years ago, at age 48, because of the incompetence of hospital staff. I understand that doctors are people, and people can make mistakes. But when a doctor has over 60 deaths on his hand it's a wonder why he's not behind bars already. Doctors take an oath, and we depend on them as well as the nurses and other employees of hospitals and health clinics. Having someone's life in your hands is no small thing. There needs to be a national, or even world-wide database that prevents doctors like Dr. Patel from gaining employment as a physician anywhere in the world after they are fired for neglegiance or a patient-related crime.

People wonder why malpractice insurance is so high. It's high because so many doctors and hospitals are screwing up! Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. But 67 times is a friggin epidemic!