Urologist Daryl Stephens’ ‘serious misconduct’ interstate but escaped suspension to work in Qld

A controversial Queensland urologist has allegedly left a patient with a mutilated penis and has been accused of blowing his nose on a curtain during an operation.

A surgeon who engaged in “serious misconduct” interstate but was allowed to work in Queensland has been the subject of multiple complaints here ­– including from a patient allegedly left with a mutilated penis and an accusation the medico blew his nose on a curtain during an operation.

The Sunday Mail can reveal controversial urologist Daryl Stephens has recently been suspended by Mackay Hospital and Health Service amid an investigation over hygiene concerns, but that complaints about his conduct in Queensland date back to 2019.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath told The Sunday Mail she was aware of complaints against Dr Stephens and he had been suspended.

In 2018, medical authorities ruled the surgeon had engaged in professional misconduct at the most serious level and displayed “incompetence” in Western Australia over his bungled treatment of a cancer patient, which included failing to read crucial pathology results for three months.

Urologist Dr Daryl Stephens has been suspended.

But he was allowed to continue practising partly because of a desperate shortage of specialists in North Queensland.

The Medical Board of Australia told Dr Stephens it would normally suspend him for professional misconduct but he now provided “the only public urology services within a 400km radius” of Mackay.

The tribunal also acknowledged that he had undertaken 12 months’ supervision, and now worked in a supportive environment at Mackay Base Hospital.

Medical authorities concluded that “the protection of the public was not required in this case”.

However, The Sunday Mail can reveal he has been the subject of multiple complaints, including a recent allegation that during a sterile surgical procedure he sneezed and blew his nose on a curtain.

The allegation has flabbergasted senior health officials.

The Sunday Mail can also reveal that one of his patients at Mackay Base Hospital has since been paid compensation with a gag clause by Mackay HHS after he alleged he suffered serious complications following a penis operation.

Dr Stephens has been suspended from Mackay Base Hospital after a complaint.

It is understood that the complaint was settled on a no-admission basis.

Dr Stephens led a team that performed a surgery called the Nesbit procedure on the man in June 2019.

Within days, he presented to the hospital ED with complications.

“It’s been a nightmare,” the 53-year-old married father of two told The Sunday Mail.

“It has left me with sexual dysfunction and my penis had to be shortened.

“The procedure was supposed to fix a bend in the penis that is caused by calcification.

“I ended up with the foreskin attached to the end of the penis. I had a second surgery to try to fix the problem but complications continued and I chose to pay for corrective surgery privately.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said when the LNP had raised issues about Mackay Base Hospital, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk accused them of “scaremongering”.

“How many more failings in the health system will it take before the Premier admits we are in the middle of a full-blown crisis and deal with it?,” he told The Sunday Mail.

“Queenslanders have run out of faith in a government that is no longer capable of admitting when problems exist and listening to solutions to fix them.”

Dr Daryl Stephens. Picture: The West Australian

The Medical Board Tribunal hearing, that declined to suspend Dr Stephens, so he could work in Mackay was held in Western Australia in November 2017 and the findings were handed down in February 2018, the year before the Nesbit procedure surgery.

The WA tribunal fined the doctor $30,000 for professional misconduct. He himself admitted it was the “most serious level of breach”.

At the time, director of surgery at Mackay Base Hospital, Dr Casper Pretorius, provided a testimonial in support of Dr Stephens, dated October 2017.

The tribunal decision is on public record with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

At the same tribunal hearing, Dr Stephens was fined $2000 for failing to report he lost his accreditation to practice at Peel Health Campus in April 2014.

The chief executive of the hospital advised Dr Stephens his accreditation was suspended “because of his conduct at the PHC”.

His suspension was unrelated to patient care.

He underwent at his own instigation several anger management counselling sessions “to help him appropriately address ongoing issues he was experiencing with senior staff at PHC related to his workload and resourcing issues”.

The tribunal acknowledged that the doctor “understands the error of his ways”.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath told The Sunday Mail she was aware of complaints against Dr Stephens and he had been suspended.

In 2014, the same year that Dr Stephens stopped treating the bladder cancer patient who was the subject of the Tribunal, he began treating two other cases who were the subject of a coronial inquest.

In 2016, the WA coroner heard two cases into the quality of care provided to two elderly patients who were treated separately by Dr Stephens in Western Australia before they died.

The inquests into the deaths of Anna Maria Winter and John Houghton were heard “contiguously to examine Dr Stephens’s treatment, management and care of his patients”.

In both cases the coroner ruled death by natural causes. No criticism was made of Dr Stephens’s care of the patients in the coroner’s findings.

During one of the inquests, Professor Dickon Hayne, head of urology at Fiona Stanley Hospital, was asked for his expert opinion on Dr Stephens’ management of Mr Houghton who had bladder cancer.

He was of the view that both the failure to investigate and treat for metastatic bladder cancer and performing major elective hip surgery could have reduced the deceased’s survival time.

Ms Winter had cancer of the vulva and had a suprapubic catheter inserted.

Due to a hospital transfer mistake, where she was sent in a taxi instead of an ambulance, she collapsed, suffered a cardiac arrest, was revived and sent to ICU. She developed sepsis.

An expert ruled that there was no surgical error and the deceased suffered a spontaneous rupture.

Urologist Dr Daryl Stephens has been suspended.

Controversy follows Dr Stephens who was embroiled in a euthanasia storm before being acquitted by a jury of a wilful murder charge relating to a terminally ill patient in 2001.

Dr Stephens is now in his 70s and his biography says he is an experienced urologist with a special interest in prostate cancer. He was born in rural central Victoria and was first registered with AHPRA in 1974.

Dr Stephens was asked by The Sunday Mail to address the claims made against him, including whether he sneezed or blew his nose on curtain during an operation but he declined to comment, stating the questions had been passed on to his “insurers”.

Dr Stephens was asked to address claims made against him by The Sunday Mail on Friday but he declined to comment.

When asked about claims against Dr Stephens, Mackay HHS interim chief executive Paula Foley said that if there were concerns about the capacity of a clinician to provide safe care, the reports were taken very seriously.

“It is important for anyone involved to be provided with procedural fairness while the concerns are investigated. It is for this reason Mackay HHS is unable to comment on any individual staffing matters,” she said.

Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates said Ms D’Ath should be taking steps “to reduce risks for patients”.

“This minister seems more interested in reducing political risks for an embattled government,” she said.

“Instead of being up-front with Queenslanders, the Palaszczuk government is more focused on

silencing Queenslanders.”

Dr Daryl Stephens at the Supreme Court with his lawyer Robert Mazza. Picture: The West Australian

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ACQUITTED OF MURDER: ‘I have had my 15 minutes of fame … I want to be forgotten now.”

Dr Daryl Stephens was first thrust into the spotlight two decades ago when he sensationally became the first medic in Australia to be charged with wilful murder over a euthanasia case. The surgeon was accused of giving his terminal cancer patient, 48-year-old woman Freeda Hayes, a lethal dose of fast-acting drugs.

Dr Daryl Stephens, right, was the first medic in the country to be charged with wilful murder over a euthanasia case. He was found not guilty.

Ms Hayes, who was in deep pain with an aggressive form of renal cancer, died in a hospice in Perth in February 2000 with two drugs in her system that were not used in her treatment.

Dr Stephens’s name dominated the headlines during the sensational Supreme Court trial in October 2001 in Western Australia.

A magistrate in November 2000 initially dismissed the wilful murder charge but the Director of Public Prosecutions used his power to take the case to the Supreme Court.

In the end, it took a jury just 10 minutes to find the then 50-year-old urologist not guilty. Outside court at the time, he declared he was “very pleased justice has been done”.

Afterwards, he returned to work, declaring he wanted to get his life as a doctor and father of two back to normal.

“I am just a surgeon who loves his work. I am itching to get back into surgery and look after my patients,’’ Dr Stephens said at the time.

“I have had my 15 minutes of fame – that is it. I want to be forgotten about now.”

The jury also acquitted the brother and sister of Ms Hayes who were accused of assisting in the alleged murder.

The case sparked such interest, it became the topic of a book titled What Happened to Freeda Hayes?