Channel 7 Today Tonight (Adelaide)

The Medical Board 15 March 2006

This version of the transcript has been edited by Dr Robert N Moles

[This program follows the release by the Select Committee of the Legislative Council of South Australia of its report into the Medical Board of South Australia. The report concluded that the Medical Board should be stripped of its powers to investigate and adjudicate on complaints].

In order of appearance

Leigh McCluskey – Presenter
David Wright – Former complainant to the Medical Board
Nick Xenophon – Independent Member of the SA Legislative Council
Graham Archer – executive producer and reporter
Professor Ross Kalucy – Former member of the Medical Board [from file tape]
Eric Sorensen – Former complainant to the Medical Board
Peter Humphries – solicitor [from file tape]
Dr Bob Moles – author and legal researcher [from file tape]

Program

Leigh McCluskey

Good evening and welcome to the program. This evening, an astonishing report has been handed down by the Parliament in relation to the conduct of the Medical Board. This program has reported on a number of cases over the years which have now been referred to in the report from the Legislative Council. Graham Archer with this astonishing report. 

David Wright

It's a very lonely existence with memories that just make you feel very angry and frustrated. I'd hate to think what I'd do if I got that doctor in a dark alley

Nick Xenophon

The report is basically saying the Medical Board has dudded South Australians for too long.

Graham Archer [file tape]

But I say it gets down to how the Board performs in individual cases ....

Professor Ross Kalucy [file tape]

no - no - no .... stop the cameras ...

Graham Archer

We've been saying it for years - but now it’s official. The state's Medical Board is a basket case.

Former Complainant to the Medical Board

As far as I am concerned the Medical Board is the doctors union - and to put it in blunt Australian language - it is to cover their arse - that's the Medical Board's job.

Graham Archer

A Parliamentary Committee Review of the Board's performance has just been released.  And the diagnosis is dire.

David Wright

You don't do your own policing. That's the quickest way to get to the situation we have now.  

Graham Archer

This follows a series of hearings last year; the culmination of decades of complaints by members of the public as well as individual doctors about the Board's abysmal conduct.

Graphic - tear out from the report over a shot of the Medical Board brass plate:

"Not one witness responded positively"

Graham Archer

The case that finally brought the Board to its knees was that of Ruth Sorenson who died after being sent home from the QEH by cannabis-addicted Dr Stuart Mauro.

Eric Sorensen

He was the man in charge on the night when my mother was there.

Graham Archer

While Mauro was not linked directly to Ruth's death, the Board knew of his chronic drug habit - but failed to inform the hospital.

David Wright

When we found out that he was under the influence of the marijuana and anti-depressants and he was stealing the anti-depressants and we thought ‘well hang on - there's something drastically wrong here with this sort of a system’.  

At the Medical Board Inquiry - Question to Professor Kalucy from the Hon R Sneath

With 10 Cones a week you would not stop a doctor?

Professor Kalucy at Medical Board Inquiry

I would think about it

Hon R Sneath

They are not ice cream cones, they are cones of marijuana.

David Wright

As one of the committee members said, ‘if its good enough for jackhammer operators at Roxby Downs its good enough for someone wielding a scalpel’.

Graham Archer

The Committee’s assessment of the Board's conduct in this case is scathing.

Graphic – tear out from doc with shot of medical board building as the back ground

“The committee finds it lamentable to hear from a Board member that ‘the board may have made a mistake’ - with reference to the loss of a life - when the life could possibly have been saved by the statutory Body whose function it is to protect the health and safety of the public.”

Eric Sorensen

I mean all that could be found, is criticism.

Graham Archer

David Wright is another who's wife Dorothy died from cancer - possibly triggered by a hormone drug wrongly prescribed by the specialist she consulted.

David Wright  

I've never felt such aggression in my life against a certain bunch of people - and I mean aggression - I'm not joking.

Graham Archer

David's frustration was fuelled by the Board’s almost total failure to respond to his complaint - after three years. The Registrar of the Board at the time, David Wilde, gave the matter just 7 lines finishing with, “the matters you complained about have both been thoroughly investigated and that the committee is unable to take these matters further."

Graham Archer

So that was the brush off?

David Wright

That's right. That's when they said ‘that's all you are going to get.’

Graham Archer

A short while later Dorothy died.

David Wright

She was a tough cookie but a lovely lady.

Graham Archer

But the Board's belligerent and bullying manner extended to their treatment of doctors too - who fell out of favour and were treated like the profession’s outcasts. Their complaints echo those of the public.

Graphic - words floating out of the document

"high handed and offensive" - "invariably, intimidating" - "rarely responds to my correspondence" - "a heartless and adversarial manner".

Graham Archer

For some years Today Tonight has raised concerns over the Board's handling of the long-term drug addicted ‘doctor Stephen Rabone’ case - who allegedly infected his patients with Hepatitis C - by injecting their pain killers himself and then turning the infected needles on them.

Former Complainant

It’s just unbelievable. I even struggle to talk about it now.

Graham Archer

Former Board President - Professor Ross Kalucy - was overseeing doctor Rabone's ‘fitness to practice’. However, his response to our questioning typifies the Board's approach to scrutiny over the years.

Graham Archer [file tape]

A doctor who is displaying aberrant behaviour may put his patients at risk?

Professor Kalucy [file tape]

A doctor who is displaying aberrant behaviour will be picked up like this (clicks fingers).

Graham Archer [file tape]

Well what about the case of Dr Stephen Rabone?

Professor Kalucy [file tape]

I don't know the case.

Graham Archer [file tape]

I think you would.

Professor Kalucy [file tape]

No.

Graham Archer [file tape]

You were President of the Board when that case went through.

Professor Kalucy [file tape]

Don’t know.

Graham Archer

And as Board President, Professor Kalucy oversaw Dr Rabone's ‘clearance to practice’ in another state - even while Rabone was still under investigation here for the most serious misconduct.

Peter Humphries

They could not give Rabone a certificate to practice medicine in NSW, without a certificate of good standing from the South Australian Medical Board.

Graham Archer

...and they provided it?

Graham Archer

Rabone's victims’ lawyer is Peter Humphries.  

Peter Humphries

Well, it sounds emotive - but I think it's disgraceful.

Graham Archer

The Parliamentary Review also expressed further shock at what they found.

Graphic - background - Medical Board

"The committee was horrified to discover that when it contacted the New South Wales Medical Board, it was revealed that Dr Rabone is currently practising in New South Wales with no restrictions."

Graham Archer

For years - Rabone refused to be tested for Hep C - until recently - when he tested positive. However, the Review Committee didn't stop at scathing criticisms. It also made a number of recommendations - including one to strip the Board of its powers to investigate and undertake disciplinary hearings.

Nick Xenophon

This Committee didn't make this recommendation to strip the Board of its powers lightly. It came to that conclusion after hearing a lot of evidence - and the anguish of a lot of people who've been let down by the Medical Board.

Graham Archer

‘No pokies’ MLC Nick Xenophon was instrumental in bringing the Board to account.

As for who'll take over?

Nick Xenophon

Whoever takes over - it must be totally independent of government - totally independent of the medical profession - so that South Australian’s can be confident that if a doctor is not doing the right thing, they will be held to account.

Graham Archer

There's no more dramatic example of this than their constant refusals to investigate complaints about the conduct and competence of former state pathologist Dr Colin Manock - who'd been found to have made numerous errors - including the tragic misdiagnoses of the deaths of three babies in the early 1990's. Nothing was done.

Did the medical Board initiate any action?

Dr Bob Moles

No, it did not.

Graham Archer

When, finally the Board's hand was forced over the Keogh case - despite astonishing evidence which contradicted both scientific practice and what the jury was actually told in two trials - the Medical Board, in an absurd finding, gave Dr Manock a clean bill of health.

Now the recommendation to strip them of those powers probably says it all

Nick Xenophon

This report doesn't pull any punches. This issue is so important. It’s literally a matter of life and death in some cases.

Graham Archer

And the unhealthy closeness between the Medical Board - the doctor's union, the AMA - and government bureaucrats, was amply demonstrated when the state's Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Baggoley, rejected the idea of taking over the Board investigative powers by saying:

Graphic : over shot of Professor Baggoley - Medical Board

"I believe it is important that that we have a Board that is independent of the Department of Health to be quite frank"

Graham Archer

Having said that - Professor Baggoley promptly joined the Medical Board himself - as the AMA rep.

Nick Xenophon

I agree with the Professor that it ought to be independent - but I'm not quite that joining the Board is the way to achieve it.

Graham Archer

The Committee is to be congratulated on a forceful approach. They should now train their sights on some of our other ailing Statutory Authorities - starting with the Legal Practitioners Conduct Board - which like the Medical Board - is held hostage by the profession it's supposed to police.

Nick Xenophon

The key message is – let’s take away these powers and reconstitute an authority that we can all have faith in.

David Wright

I'll never change my feelings that way – [breaking down] - I'm sorry but I can't go on.

Leigh McCluskey

Graham Archer with that report.

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