Doctors in hot water: Suspension after Ebola risk comments

IF Cairns nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack had tested positive for the Ebola virus, it may have taken at least two days for experimental medicine to arrive. The news comes as the Cairns Hospital and Hinterland Health Service has suspended two doctors for their comments to the media about the service’s handling of the 57-year-old aid worker, who was isolated inside the hospital’s emergency department for four days after showing possible symptoms of the virus. Ms Kovack has thanked the community for its support, after she was discharged from the hospital early yesterday morning. The International Red Cross volunteer presented at the Cairns Hospital on Thursday with mild flu symptoms, after returning from Ebola-struck West Africa. She has since tested negative to the deadly virus. Ms Kovack said it was a huge relief to be given the all-clear. “It confirms that our protection and safety measures are working well,’’ she said. “I’ll be staying in precautionary isolation for the rest of the three weeks since I last had contact with patients in Sierra Leone.” She said the outpouring of support from her family, friends and so many Australians and others around the world had been quite emotional for her. “I’d like to bring the focus back to the tens of thousands of people directly affected by Ebola in West Africa,’’ she said. “Four thousand have lost their lives, and over 8400 have been infected in total. “That means more than 40,000 people have family members who have either died or become infected.” The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service announced yesterday it would review its processes in the event of any suspected Ebola cases in the future. Cairns Hospital infectious disease physician Dr Trent Yarwood told reporters the local health facility would be able to manage any patients infected with the disease. However, he admitted it would take some time to access experimental drugs to treat the virus, which needed to be obtained from the US. The CHHHS has also launched a separate external investigation into senior medical staff’s unattributed comments about the handling of the health scare. Late yesterday afternoon, the service’s CEO Julie Hartley-Jones issued a statement saying she had taken the decision to stand down two senior doctors on full pay at Cairns Hospital pending the results of the review. Earlier, she denied suggestions the investigation was a witch hunt. “I’m very happy for our staff to raise concerns at any time,’’ she said. “But they make their concerns to the teams that can do something about it, not the media.”