Poster boy Keith Kolodzej ‘unfit’ to practice in the US

ONE of the faces of the Nat­ional Home Doctor Service had his medical training permit revoked in the US after testing positive for cocaine and alcohol.

Dr Keith Kolodzij.Medicare. Picture: Richard Dobson

• After-hours GP services using unqualified doctors
• Home care chiefs also major investors

ONE of the faces of the Nat­ional Home Doctor Service had his medical training permit revoked in the US after testing positive for cocaine and alcohol.

Dr Keith Kolodzej, originally from Vermont, moved to Australia when he was determined unfit to practise medicine in his homeland.

Dr Kolodzej, 42, and the National Home Doctor Service did not respond to questions about whether he has completed additional qualifications and training in Australia, simply saying he was registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

Documents show Dr Kol­odzej had his medical residency training permit revoked in the US in 2007 by the Medical Licensing Board in Indiana for alcohol use and testing positive to cocaine. In August of that year the board found Dr Kolodzej was in violation of its code as he “continued to practise although unfit due to addiction to, abuse of, or severe dependency upon ­alcohol or other drugs that endanger the public by impairing a practitioner’s ability to safely practise”.

It found he had twice tested positive for cocaine, though he denied using it, and had undergone treatment for alcohol ­depend-ency. He was terminated from his residency program.

Dr Kolodzej’s past revealed.

After having his licence revoked, Dr Kolodzej left the US and moved to Queensland to start practising medicine in the emergency department at Townsville Hospital.

He has not had any ­adverse findings since he has been in Australia. He runs a tattoo removal parlour in Darlinghurst by day, and has spoken of visiting sick patients at home five nights a week.

“Dr Keith Kolodzej has general registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, which is a requirement for medical practitioners to be able to practise in Australia and there are no conditions, undertakings, reprimands noted on his registration,” a National Home Doctor Service spokesman said.

Visiting GPS often the less qualified

THE majority of doctors responding to at-home calls after hours are less qualified clinicians, exclusive data reveals.

Unpublished Medicare data shows only 27 per cent of the ­urgent after-hours visits were ­attended by registered GPs while 3 per cent were specialists.

Out of the 1.8 million visits in 2015-16, 63 per cent were by non-vocationally registered GPs and a further 7 per cent were by GP trainees.

Prof Brad Frankum.

The independent Medicare Benefits Schedule taskforce ­review into after-hours care found the GPs were often “less qualified clinicians.”

“After-hours services are ­important, but we must ensure that patients get the right test or treatment first time, every time and are not subjected to ­unnecessary and inappropriate care,” Professor Bruce Robinson, who headed the review, said.

“The Australian medical community recognises the need to remove MBS funding from unnecessary, outdated, ineffective and potentially unsafe services.”

President of the industry body, National Association for Medical Deputising Service, Dr Spiro Doukakis said the after-hours doctors were “some of the most qualified and dedicated medical professionals in the country”.

“They are fully trained doctors including emergency specialists and have an average 12 years postgraduate experience,” he said.

The body has issued guidelines for doctors regarding the billing of items that are ‘urgent’ and say they have trained doctors through seminars and one-on-one mentoring sessions.

NSW president of the AMA, Professor Brad Frankum said there needed to be a higher quality and reliable after-hours medical service.

“The difficulty is the services that have sprung up want to make money so they’re employing people who in many cases don’t have appropriate or adequate experience or skill to be able to deal with very sick patients in their own homes after hours,” he said.

“They often will refer the ­patients straight to the hospital. You could say the health system is doubling up.”