Stroke-deaths inquest hears specialist radiologists don’t get on, earn $1.1 million
TWO senior RAH specialist radiologists who covered a 24-hour roster may have been resisting assistance to “protect their patch” because they were earning more than $1.1 million a year, an inquest has heard.
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TWO senior Royal Adelaide Hospital specialist radiologists who covered a 24-hour roster may have been resisting assistance to “protect their patch” because they were earning more than $1.1 million a year, an inquest has heard.
Interventional Neuro-Radiologists James Taylor and Rebecca Scroop were both on leave at the same time in April when patients Michael John Russell, 60, and Leslie Robert Graham, 87, died.
Counsel assisting the coroner, Naomi Kereru, yesterday asked RAH acting head of radiology Jim Buckley why the two doctors had a poor relationship with a third INR specialist, Steve Chryssidis.
“It was common knowledge that there was not a good relationship between the three radiologists,” he said.
Ms Kereru told State Coroner Mark Johns that in 2016-17, Dr Taylor and Dr Scroop each earnt more than $1.1 million — the majority of which was accumulated through private practice and on-call work.
She asked Dr Buckley if the poor relationship between Dr Chryssidis and the two doctors was because he wanted to be put on the INR after hours roster.
Dr Buckley said he didn’t know the reason for the animosity — whether it was personality, ability to perform the procedure or to “protect their patch” financially. But he said the rostering situation had been “intolerable”.
“I knew that things were very stretched for both of them, Dr Scroop and Dr Taylor,” he said.
“It’s a 24/7 service provided by only two people — that is a very fragile roster indeed. If one was overseas, it meant the other was on call day and night — it was an intolerable situation.”
Dr Buckley said a third INR specialist was employed by SA Medical Imaging and started at the RAH this week but she was not yet fully accredited to perform the procedure unsupervised. Dr Taylor, Dr Scroop and Dr Chryssidis are yet to give their evidence.