Doctor’s pants ‘fell down regularly’, co-worker complained of being left shaking

An embattled surgeon is accused of mistreating Queensland and Western Australia hospital staff, including calling nurses ‘morons’ and screaming fiercely at co-workers.

Embattled medico Daryl Stephens’ scrub pants would regularly fall down while he was operating, he labelled nurses “morons” and screamed so fiercely at co-workers some were left trembling, nauseous or on the verge of tears.

The surgeon’s rocky relationships with co-workers dates back years before he was even employed in Queensland.

He was suspended from a Western Australian hospital in 2014 for conduct issues. He underwent anger management training.

In Mackay he has been accused of mistreating other medical staff and in 2021 an investigation substantiated allegations of bad behaviour towards co-workers.

During the investigations Dr Stephens admitted to saying “here come the morons” to nursing staff but claimed it only occurred if he was really tired.

One co-worker insisted the slur happened regularly on Friday afternoons during shift changeovers.

He was also accused by multiple colleagues of abusive rants. One female staffer complained of being left “literally shaking” and nauseated after an exchange with an “aggressive and threatening” Dr Stephens.

The urologist argued that some complaints against him were not recent and failed to recall exact events and disputed that he would yell at staff.

The external investigation substantiated claims that bizarrely his scrub pants would fall down up to once a fortnight from 2017 to 2018 but the strange behaviour decreased in the next year.

One colleague had claimed it occurred weekly.

Dr Stephens has argued that he had huge work pressures with high turnover demands and had to compete for theatre time.

His workplace behaviour was reported on several occasions.

There have been complaints about breaches of personal space and inappropriate language and walking into an operating theatre screaming.

Dr Stephens was directed to complete communication and behavioural training.