OUTRAGED doctors are rallying in support of two doctors suspended over the handling of last week’s Ebola scare at Cairns Hospital. It comes after Australia’s peak emergency medicine body backed a group of senior clinicians who aired internal concerns about decisions made in the state’s first ever suspected case of the deadly haemorrhagic fever.
Premier Campbell Newman, the Australian Medical Association, unions, and the Opposition yesterday questioned the “transparency” of a review ordered after The Courier-Mail published a front-page report on the outcry.
Doctors told The Courier-Mail of internal ructions over a decision to keep volunteer nurse Sue Ellen Kovack – who tested negative to Ebola – in isolation in the busy emergency department at Cairns Hospital for six days.
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine yesterday said they backed the group of clinicians and there was “no justification” to keep Ms Kovack in emergency.
But Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and Cairns Hospital Board chairman Bob Norman both insisted an independent review go-ahead and refused to reinstate the two Cairns doctors suspended on full pay for six weeks.
Premier Newman yesterday called for the Cairns health board to be “a bit more open about why they have made this call’’.
Mr Springborg said the independent review would be broader than the handling of the Ebola case and would cover the handling of other infectious diseases including tuberculosis.
He last night told The Courier-Mail he was not out to “put heads on a stake” or conduct a “witch hunt”.
“It’s wrong to say if someone talks out, heads will be put on a stake or there’ll be a witch hunt, health staff go public all the time, but at a time of heightened concern over Ebola, individuals come with responsibilities,’’ Mr Springborg said.
“We want to reassure the public that appropriate protocols were followed in the handling of this suspected Ebola case.’’
Mr Springborg added he had serious reservations about “failings” of TB contact tracing efforts. “We’ve got a humanitarian and public health disaster on our doorstep in PNG,’’ Mr Springborg said.
“Our big concern now is how much we are on the verge of MDR-TB which is almost impossible to treat.
“I’m told people have not been effectively traced and followed up. That’s not good enough.’’ Cairns Hospital board chairman Mr Norman said the two doctors had been suspended on full pay to “minimise stress and anxiety” on the doctors pending the inquiry.
He said the review was into unauthorised release of patient information to media but did not elaborate.
CAIRNS Hospital has been thrown into disarray after the suspension of two senior doctors which has prevented them from treating patients for at least six weeks.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service chairman Bob Norman yesterday defended the decision to suspend the unnamed doctors – a respiratory physician and an emergency specialist – on full pay.
The pair are accused of making comments to media about the service’s handling of nurse Sue-Ellen Kovack, who was isolated in the hospital for four days after showing possible symptoms of the Ebola virus after working in Sierra Leone.
The doctors’ suspensions will remain in place pending the results of a Department of Health-commissioned independent review of recent infectious disease cases at Cairns Hospital – expected
The Cairns Post has reported that a replacement doctor has been appointed to the respiratory unit.
But Alex Scott, secretary of union Together Queensland, said there was “no way” the substitute could provide an equivalent level of treatment.
“They are two of the most senior and experienced clinicians in the Far North. To replace them in the short term is simply impossible and patients will suffer every day these people are suspended,” he said.
The suspensions have also divided the state’s leaders, with Premier Campbell Newman yesterday calling on the CHHHS to further explain why they happened.
“Given that this is a public organisation and public funds are involved, I think it would be good if they were a bit more forthcoming about their decisions and I think they need to be a bit more open about why they’ve made this call,” he said.
But Health Minister Lawrence Springborg backed the suspensions.
“There was certainly misleading information on the weekend and we need to understand why that information was misleading,” he said.
Mr Norman yesterday said it was “normal procedure” to suspend staff during a review and denied the move represented a gag order.
He confirmed their suspension also related to other comments made regarding the death of a Torres Strait Islander woman in Cairns Hospital two weeks ago due to complications secondary to tuberculosis.
He said that the CHHHS had internal processes available to doctors to raise any concerns about clinical procedures within the hospital.
“The board is very concerned about non-accurate information about the people being treated being released in the public,” he said.
“It’s not appropriate for clinicians to debate those issues in the public or media and it’s certainly not acceptable to the service for that to be in fact happening.”
Shadow Health Minister Jo-Ann Miller questioned why two senior doctors were being “pilloried” for drawing attention to a potentially “very serious public health matter”.
Related:
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine: Consult emergency physicians about emergencies
The recent case of a Cairns nurse who developed flu-like symptoms after returning from working in Sierra Leone has highlighted the need for emergency doctors to be allowed to contribute to the decision making process around potentially infectious patients, says the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).