Obstetrician's $2.6m lawsuit against colleagues explodes in ‘Jayant Patel’ sledges and ‘illegal cartels’

An obstetrician who is suing his colleagues for $2.6m because they refused to cover his patients on weekends and after-hours, has denied claims that he referred to a colleague as “Jayant Patel”.

Dr Christopher Price leaves the Brisbane Supreme Court. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

An obstetrician who is suing his colleagues for $2.6m claiming he has had to give up his practice because they refused to cover his patients on weekends and after-hours, has denied claims that he referred to a colleague as “Jayant Patel”.

On the first day of a hearing of his civil claim, Christopher Joseph Price, a veteran doctor who practices at North West Private Hospital (NWPH) in Everton Park, told the Supreme Court that he felt betrayed.

“I had taken bullets for colleagues and now I had the same colleagues holding the gun,” he said of their alleged decision to exclude him from their on-call roster.

Dr Price told the court he thought colleague Namrata Bajra’s claim about him calling her Dr Patel in her affidavit filed in court “was so farcical I actually didn’t respond to it”.

Dr Bajra is one of half a dozen of his closest colleagues at NWPH he is suing, accusing them of running an illegal cartel by excluding him from their on-call roster.

Dr Namrata Bajra, a Brisbane obstetrician sued by Dr Chris Price.

Obstetrician, gynaecologist and fertility specialist Dr Terry Sheahan. Source: Supplied.

He is suing doctors Kate Kerridge, Terence Sheahan, Ee Min Kho, Eva Kretowicz and James Friebe alleging they breached competition law in 2021, despite his repeated attempts to be included in their roster.

“I’m the first person to be kicked off a roster,” Dr Price said during his cross examination before Justice Declan Kelly.

“No one replied to my emails, the phone calls I had they said one thing and didn’t follow through, they didn’t respond to a quite reasonable letter that I wrote,” Dr Price told the court saying he felt “ghosted” and “invisible”.

“No one was talking to me,” Dr Price said.

Barrister Matthew Jones, for the six doctors, asked Dr Price if he had ever commented that Dr Bajra “only gets patients who wear hijabs”.

“No,” Dr Price replied.

“I suggest to you that when you saw that statement in Dr Bajra’s affidavit that caused you some concern?” Mr Jones asked.

“I was not surprised,” Dr Price replied.

“Clearly there is no love lost between some of the defendants and myself,” Dr Price said in later evidence on Wednesday.

Dr Price conceded he had made clinical complaints about two doctors at NWPH, and conceded that in between April and June 2021 he had “turned his mind” to the possibility that other obstetricians might consider him “a difficult person to work with”.

Dr Price testified that tensions boiled over after the April 15, 2021 meeting with Dr Friebe where Dr Friebe told Dr Price that he would be joining the other on-call roster.

“Was it at the point where you were contemplating self harm?” Mr Jones asked about the weekend of April 18.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Jamie Friebe. Source: Supplied.

Specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Kate Kerridge. Source: Supplied.

“I was acutely depressed, I think that is reasonable to say, for all sorts of reasons, not being in the roster was not the only reason for that,” he said.

“What were the others reasons?,” Mr Jones asked.

“Betrayal, I had taken bullets for colleagues and now I had the same colleagues holding the gun,” he said.

“I had received vitriol from the original group A because I tried to protect Dr Kerridge when her accreditation was threatened … I stood up for Dr Friebe when he was threatened to be removed from the roster because Dr Sheehan said that he had stolen his patients,” he said.

“So yes, I felt quite betrayed by colleagues.”
Court documents state that on the night of April 16, Dr Friebe says Dr Price’s wife Kirsten Price texted him: “Just to let you know. If my husband commits suicide I am going to hold you fully responsible”.

Dr Friebe later replied in part: “You wife’s text to me last night was unfair, distressing and extremely damaging.”

In evidence on Wednesday Dr Price said that he felt Dr Friebe’s text-message response to his acute depression that weekend was “to complain that he was being made to feel bad”.

Dr Kerridge states in her affidavit filed in court that when she worked with Dr Price six years ago his car registration plate was “A TEAM” and he allegedly referred to other obstetricians on a rival cover group at the hospital with the derogatory sledge of the “B Team” of obstetricians which included many of the six he is suing.

But Dr Price said that the plate was purchased as a gift from his wife and it was a reference to “the actual A-team” a popular 1980s American TV drama.

Dr Price agreed with the assertion by Mr Jones that he believes he cant continue to practice without the benefit of an on-call roster because he can’t count on being able to ever take a break, such as a holiday or a weekend off.

He feels he is at the mercy of other doctors at the hospital and their willingness to grant him short-term cover for his patients at short notice, the court heard.

The six doctors submit that Dr Price could seek other, non-reciprocal arrangements to cover his days off, and “entirely abandoning his obstetrics practice” is unjustified “extreme action”.

In other evidence Dr Price said he did not have a “social relationship” with Dr Kerridge because she and her wife Lyn Ratcliff told him that they “were stealing patients” from him and “threatened to use a homophobic slur against me in the future”.

Dr Price’s claim states he earned average revenue of $700,000 each financial year from his obstetrics practice at the hospital from 2016 to 2021 where he has delivered between 114 and 143 babies each year.

The case continues on Thursday October 26.