RAH stroke debacle deja vu — senior specialists again book overlapping holidays

THE Royal Adelaide Hospital’s stroke service faces having just one junior doctor to provide 24/7 treatment — because two senior specialists are again going on holidays at the same time.

• Original story: Two stroke patients die while specialists away
• Claims of an affair, bullying and overtime rorting emerge
• Replacement doctor goes on maternity leave

THE Royal Adelaide Hospital’s troubled stroke service is yet again in crisis as its two senior Interventional Neuro-Radiology (INR) specialists again both prepare to go on holidays at the same time, leaving the supposedly 24/7 flagship service in the hands of a junior rejected for the job last year.

Another specialist brought in from Melbourne to help cover the service injured himself in a picnic races meeting in Alice Springs and is unable to work.

Dr Lan-Anh Do will have to cover the service next month despite being rejected for the job in February last year due to her inexperience and lack of full credentials.

The service was plunged into turmoil last year when its only two INRs, Dr Rebecca Scroop and Dr James Taylor, were both on holidays when two patients arrived and needed blood clots suctioned from their brains following strokes.

With no-one qualified to do the procedure, officials pleaded with SA’s only other INR accredited to do the procedure, Dr Steve Chryssidis, who works in private practice and at Flinders Medical Centre, but he was unable to save either man after the delays.

Michael John Russell, 60, and Leslie Robert Graham, 81, died at the RAH in April last year.

Officials only reported one case to the Coroner and did not mention there was no INR specialist on duty to do the procedure — Coroner Mark Johns only found out the details, and of the second death, by reading The Advertiser.

Since The Advertiser revealed the scandal, the service has hired Dr Do but due to her going on maternity leave the service also hired a Melbourne specialist last month to help cover the shortfall.

However, The Advertiser understands he suffered serious injuries in a motor bike accident at the Finke River picnic races and cannot take up the position.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital’s stroke specialists will both be on holiday . (AAP Image/ Brenton Edwards)

Dr Jim Buckley, Campus Clinical Head, Royal Adelaide Hospital, SA Medical Imaging released a short statement in response to inquiries from The Advertiser.

“Interventional neuro radiologist cover will continue to be provided at the RAH, with a full time interventional neuroradiology (INR) specialist available,” it states.

“We have secured some additional support from an alternative SA-based INR specialist, and we’re looking at other options to provide further cover during this period.”

An ongoing inquest into the two deaths has been delayed until September, distressing at least one of the families.

The inquest so far has heard startling allegations of rorting overtime, industrial blackmail, a love affair gone sour, a medicos’ turf war and bullying within the RAH radiology department.

It also has heard Dr Scroop and Dr Taylor earned $1.1 million a year and may have been protective of their financial prospects in not first hiring Dr Do when the opportunity was available.

The inquest has heard that, prior to the deaths, Dr Chryssidis worked part-time at the RAH but his attempts to progress to full-time hours were thwarted as it would have taken away lucrative overtime pay from Dr Taylor and Dr Scroop.

Dr Chryssidis told the hearing of his time trying to join in the RAH unit full-time: “I felt that I was the victim of an insidious hate campaign. There was an undermining culture of exclusivity and the environment was toxic — it was destructive.”

As the 24/7 stroke service faces being down to just one junior INR specialist, Coroner Mark Johns has previously questioned during the inquest whether there was concern the critical service was being provided by only two people.

“Do you realise that effectively two people were covering 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year?” he asked.

SA Medical Imaging executive director John Kolovos responded: “I did understand that.”

The inquest will resume in September.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr Lan-Anh Do was appointed to the RAH stroke unit in August 2017, after the events subject to the ongoing coronial inquest, and gained full CCINR  accreditation to perform emergency INR procedures in November 2017.