Bacchus Marsh Hospital baby deaths: Dr Rakhi Basu fronts disciplinary hearing
A junior doctor who worked at Bacchus Marsh Hospital during the baby death saga is likley to receive nothing more than a formal reprimand.
Victoria
Don't miss out on the headlines from Victoria. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A former junior doctor who was working at the shambolically run Bacchus Marsh Hospital obstetrics unit when cluster of babies unexpectedly died is likely to receive nothing more than a formal reprimand.
Dr Rakhi Basu was working as a junior doctor at the hospital between 2008 and 2014 under the leadership of the notorious director of obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Surinder Parhar, who was last year disqualified for more than a decade over the litany failures he oversaw, including the failure to properly review Dr Basu’s performance.
Dr Basu on Monday faced the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for of a scheduled three days of hearings.
The tribunal heard the Medical Board of Australia had made 15 allegations against Dr Basu stemming from its investigation into her time at the hospital.
Barrister Ben Jellis, for the board, said Dr Basu only appeared to dispute one or two of the allegations against her.
“Hopefully, by the opening of play (on Tuesday) we will have a position on everything that’s not contested by (Dr Basu),” he said.
Mr Jellis and Dr Basu’s legal team told the tribunal they planned to spend most of Monday negotiating which allegations the doctor would admit.
The precise details of the allegations against Dr Basu were not aired during the brief hearing on Monday.
Dr Basu’s barrister, John Noonan, KC, said he hoped out-of-court negotiations on Monday would “hopefully get to final position about what allegations are alive, and what issues are in dispute”.
“We think it entirely feasible that a very, very large part of this (hearing) may well be the subject of agreement,” he said.
Tribunal senior member Elisabeth Wentworth said written materials filed with the tribunal suggested Dr Basu “fully acknowledged her record keeping was below standard”.
Those allegations made up the majority of claims against Dr Basu.
The board is only seeking her to be formally reprimanded.
Dr Basu is among the final medical practitioners to face professional disciplinary proceedings stemming from her time at the hospital.
As well as Dr Parhar’s 12 year disqualification from practise, the hospital’s consultant director of medical services, Dr Lee Gruner, is awaiting a penalty hearing relating to her time at the hospital.
The manager of maternity services, Mary Little, has been disqualified for a decade.
A senior hospital administrator, Elizabeth Wilson, was earlier this suspended for two years.
Dr Basu’s former colleague, Dr Jocelyn Benedicto, was earlier this year formally reprimanded over 16 instances of professional misconduct and unprofessional conduct.
Another junior doctor, Dr Lorraine Lines, has been disqualified for three months.
In 2018, Dr Basu, who was by then working at Ballan District Health, said in a promotional video she “likes women’s health in general and obstetrics and pregnancy care”.
Dr Basu’s hearing resumes on Tuesday.
‘There’s more freedom here in Australia’
Brian Corr was backpacking around Australia 15 years ago when he fell in love with farming Down Under. Now, he is thriving.
Call for change as hate speech laws deemed not fit for purpose
Victoria’s most prominent Jewish leaders have written an urgent letter to the state government calling for a change to proposed new hate speech laws, as the Coalition shapes up to oppose the controversial legislation.