Health Minister promises to compensate patients if cancer misdiagnosed

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles has promised to compensate patients if an investigation finds a Redland Hospital surgeon failed to detect their cancers in a scoping bungle.

QUEENSLAND Health Minister Steven Miles has pledged to compensate patients if an investigation finds a Redland Hospital surgeon failed to detect their cancers.

The Australian-trained surgeon has been banned in Queensland from performing procedures known as scopes – endoscopies and colonoscopies to examine a patient’s digestive tract – since September, 2018, when issues with his practice first emerged.

1000 AT RISK IN REDLAND SCOPE BUNGLE

He performed scopes on about 1500 Redland Hospital patients between 2012 and 2018 but the Metro South Hospital and Health Service has only rescreened 450 people, identifying 14 with “a diagnosis of bowel cancer”.

Queensland Health, which was only briefed by Metro South about the problems with the surgeon late last year, is in the process of contacting the other 1000 patients and offering rescreens by the end of March.

That’s expected to cost the department up to $2 million.

L to R: Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles and Queensland Health Director-General Dr John Wakefield discuss the investigation into the Redland Hospital doctor. Photo: Steve Pohlner

Mr Miles has ordered Metro South to commission a “full and independent” inquiry into issues surrounding the surgeon, likely to be led by an interstate expert.

“I commit that the findings of that investigation will be made public,” he said.

Queensland Health Director-General John Wakefield said problems with the surgeon first emerged in 2018 when another doctor “identified a patient as having a bowel lesion that they wouldn’t have expected to see after a previous screening”.

A probe into the surgeon’s cases “subsequently provided some level of concern about the thoroughness of the practice of that doctor”, Dr Wakefield said.

“I must stress, I, at this point in time, have no evidence that anybody has cancer as a result of this doctor’s practice.

“If we find that there’s a significant likelihood that any of those cancers can be attributed to the work of this doctor we will move in to work and support those patients by way of some sort of compensation.

“But it’s too early at this stage.”

Mr Miles said his focus was on supporting patients who may have been affected and their families.

“Clearly, some may have legal rights down the track,” he said. “Our approach is to be a model litigant and to work closely with them to ensure they are compensated.”

Dr Wakefield and Mr Miles were only briefed just before last Christmas by Metro South about concerns relating to the surgeon, more than 15 months after he was banned from performing scopes in Queensland.

Health Consumers’ Queensland chair Erin Evans said Queenslanders “need to be assured that a rigorous, independent and multidisciplinary team will investigate how this happened and the impact on people’s lives”.

“The review team should include medical, nursing and consumer representatives,” she said.

“Affected patients and their families must then be supported to be central in the subsequent implementation of recommendations from the review.”