Dr Michael Swee Leong Quek the subject of two coronial inquests

An Adelaide doctor who prescribed medication for a patient – who died seven hours later – should have immediately sent him to emergency, an inquest heard.

A northern suburbs doctor gave a father medication that contributed to his death and failed to act when a girl – who later died of an undiagnosed illness – became extremely emaciated, two inquests have found.

Branko Jablanovic, 61, and Monineath “Fifi” Chum, 9, saw Malaysian-born general practitioner Dr Michael Swee Leong Quek, 55, at his former Paralowie clinic, in January 2017.

While the deaths are not linked, their cases were subject to lengthy coronial inquests before adverse findings were published on the medico in March this year and last week.

The doctor, who denied wrongdoing, is on indefinite leave from his new clinic at Mawson Lakes, due to illness.

Dr Michael Quek. Picture: Supplied

While the country’s medical watchdog has a “concern”, no formal reprimands or conditions are currently on his registration.

An Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency spokesman on Tuesday revealed it was “managing a concern involving this practitioner as outlined by the coroner” but declined to disclose details.

He said public safety was its “paramount principle and … at the centre of everything we do”, ranging from ensuring practitioners are appropriately skilled and qualified when registered “to intervening in their practice if it is necessary to ensure the safety of future patients”.

State Coroner David Whittle ruled Dr Quek’s decision to prescribe Mr Jablanovic, of Paralowie, propranolol medication “contributed to his death” as he made six adverse findings.

In a judgment published last week, he criticised a failure to immediately send his patient to hospital emergency but instead prescribed pills, inadequate note taking, not obtaining adequate medical history and poor decisions that excluded cardiac failure over anxiety.

Deputy State Coroner Ian White earlier found Dr Quek’s care for Fifi, who had contracted tuberculosis, in 2016 and 2017 was “well below sufficient in the circumstances”.

Mr White said while he did not criticise any doctors who treated her for not diagnosing tuberculosis, his findings centred on missed signs and failures to monitor the child’s weight, which should have sparked urgent care.

While Mr Jablanovic’s family blame the medico, who they also formally complained about, for the father of two’s death, the little’s girl’s father does not believe his actions killed his child, and there was no finding he had.

Mr Jablanovic’s relatives told of their trauma after the pensioner, who had “all the risks” for cardiac failure, had vitamin D deficiency, was overweight and suffered type-2 diabetes, died “before his time”.

Speaking on behalf of his wife, Andelka, 58, and son, Sasa, 35, Mr Jablanovic’s daughter Suzi, 39, of Paralowie, said the family was struggling to comprehend his death, which robbed him of enjoying time with two grandchildren born after he died.

She said her Serbian-born father, a former cleaner, was a “good person” who loved European sport including soccer and basketball, while he doted on his family.

“We all struggled for a very long time with what happened. He shouldn’t have died like that,” said Ms Jablanovic, who has a six-month-old son.

“It happened so quickly, we didn’t have a chance to say goodbye.”

Court documents show the GP saw Mr Jablanovic for fewer than 10 minutes at his Health Matters Medical Centre on January 17, 2017.

Health Matters Medical Centre in Paralowie. Picture: Matt Loxton

He died from cardiac arrest at 12.40am on January 19, almost seven hours after he took a prescribed “beta-blocker” anti-blood pressure medication from his doctor who had concluded he was suffering “anxiety”. He fell ill within an hour of taking a pill.

The doctor, who experts told the inquest should have sent his patient to the Lyell McEwin Hospital’s emergency department, denied that his brief consultation notes “placed a question mark” over whether he actually undertook a physical examination.

But the coroner, who criticised his “unsatisfactory” evidence, found he “failed to exercise appropriate caution” when prescribing the drug.

Branko Jablanovich. Picture: supplied by family

Monineath Chum.

“Unfortunately, Dr Quek’s eagerness to do something to alleviate Mr Jablanovic’s symptoms at that time resulted in him doing something ... actually more dangerous for (him) than doing nothing until he had the benefit of the … tests,” he found.

During an appointment on August 12, 2016, Dr Quek described Fifi as looking “almost cachectic” – a medical term for the wasting away of fat and muscles on a patient.

Despite the concern, his notes were only to monitor the concerning weight loss rather than urgently seek help from a specialist pediatrician.

She had a body mass index of 12.01. Anything under 18 is considered underweight.

Dr Peter Joyner, a specialist GP who reviewed her case, was shocked by her “very critically low” BMI and criticised a lack of urgency.

“If I had a child like that in front of me and I ring the pediatrician and say ‘I’ve got a child with a BMI of 12’, every (specialist), if you opened with that sentence with that number, would say ‘I need to see them’,” he told the inquest.

Fifi’s father, Savann Chum, 41, told how his family have also struggled to cope with his daughter’s death as he cared for his wife, Somala Keo, who suffered a stroke in 2012.

Speaking at his Mawson Lakes home on Monday, Dr Quek said he showed great care for his patients and the two cases were “completely unrelated”.

Dr Quek, who has been practising for almost 30 years, said he had no problems with any other patients “before or since” and he had not heard “any particular criticisms”.

“It’s very confronting being asked questions like this, if you don’t mind I would prefer you speak to my lawyer,” he said.

His lawyer did not respond.