Questions are being asked of the State’s Health Minister about the way complaints are handled against doctors on the north coast.
A petition calling for the resignation of the Chief Executive of the Northern NSW Local Health District has been handed to the Health Service.
The head of the Lismore medical staff council Dr Chris Ingall said more than 80 fellow doctors signed the petition, citing no confidence in Chief Executive Chris Crawford.
The call relates to a local obstetrician, Dr Glenn Taylor, who was stood down last year by the health service board while complaints against him were investigated.
Dr Ingall said doctors are concerned about how the matter was handled.
“We understood that Dr Taylor had been stood down and that he was then investigated and completely exonerated, we felt very concerned and worried that it could happen again that there were no checks and balances in place,”
Brian Pezzutti from the Northern NSW Health Board said Dr Taylor’s name was cleared but the doctor chose not to return to work.
Dr Pezzutti said there were significant problems with the way complaints against doctors were dealt with, but the board has a new approach.
“The Chief Executive acted on the advice of the two most senior doctors in the local health district to make the decision he took to stand Dr Taylor down,” Dr Pezzutti said.
“But the way in which the matter was dealt with from there was subject to criticism by many and so we developed a whole new process of dealing with complaints against clinicians,” he said.
NSW MP Dr Andrew McDonald has taken the concerns of Dr Ingall and other doctors to the NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner.
This week in parliament he asked the minister three questions on notice.
1) Has the Minister, her office, or the Ministry of Health been made aware of the standing down of a senior clinician from Lismore Base Hospital in January 2013?
2) On what date or dates did the Board of the Northern New South Wales Local Health District discuss the standing down of a senior clinician at Lismore Base Hospital in 2013?
a. What conclusion was reached at these board meetings?
b. Were the minutes of these board meetings made available to affected parties?
3) Has the Minister, her office, or the Ministry of Health received or been made aware of a petition of 84 senior clinicians requesting the resignation of the chief executive of the Northern New South Wales Local Health District in May 2013?
a. If so, what response was given to the petition?
The minister has 35 days to respond to Dr McDonald’s questions.