Surgeon suspended after ‘using patient as a prop’ for a joke

A Sydney surgeon who inappropriately invited an anaesthetist to “have a feel” inside a patient during a colonoscopy, giggled during the procedure and recorded it on his mobile phone has been suspended from practising for three months.

Gary McKay, a colorectal and general surgeon based on the north shore, admitted to unethical conduct and a “serious lapse of judgment” during an operation at North Sydney’s private Mater Hospital in 2018.

The incident occurred during a colonoscopy at Mater Hospital in North Sydney in 2018.Credit: Kate Geraghty

According to a judgment by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, McKay abandoned a colonoscopy after discovering a large mass in the patient’s rectum which he suspected to be a rare tumour. With the patient under anaesthetic, he invited the attending anaesthetist, Dr Hill, to “put your gloves on and have a feel ... it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

A nurse then reported seeing Hill put on a pair of gloves and “put one or two fingers into [the patient’s] rectum”, and saw McKay photograph this activity on his mobile phone. According to the judgment, McKay then said: “I’m taking these photos to send to all your anaesthetist mates so they can see you with your fingers stuck up the patient’s arse.”

The nurse reported the incident to a hospital manager at the time, and the following month the Mater informed the medical council it was cancelling McKay’s registration at the hospital due to events that occurred during the colonoscopy.

The council suspended McKay’s registration to practice in February 2019 and referred the matter to the Health Care Complaints Commission, but lifted the suspension later that year with conditions. Separately, the HCCC prosecuted the complaint against McKay, leading to last week’s suspension.

McKay admitted to misleading the hospital – and the patient in a later phone call – by denying he took photographs of the examination and claiming he had only “pretended” to take them.

The surgeon also admitted to an “improper” phone call in which he asked the patient if he wanted Hill’s phone number so that he could tell him he would not press charges.

McKay told the inquiry he was informed the patient had complained to the police and wanted to see if that was true. “He conceded that there had been a self-interest in making the call because he also wanted to find out whether [the patient] was pressing charges against him,” the judgment said.

According to the judgment, the patient felt “violated” after the phone call, and once he found out the details, “he felt disgusted”. In a 2019 statement he said he had been seeing a psychologist and was still affected by the incident.

McKay contended his actions did not amount to professional misconduct, but the tribunal upheld the HCCC’s view and suspended the surgeon for three months, believing it was unlikely he would behave in the same way again.

“We accept that [it] is not unusual for jokes to be made in the operating theatre environment to lighten what could be considered a stressful environment,” the tribunal concluded.

“In our opinion this cannot be simply described as a jocular incident in an operating theatre ... We agree with the description used by counsel for the HCCC – [the patient] was being used as a prop for a joke.”

In a statement, Mater Hospital spokesman David Faktor said the hospital expressed its sincere apologies to the patient at the time and outlined the actions taken following the incident.

“The Mater takes our commitment to the care and dignity of all our patients very seriously - accordingly we have a strict code of conduct that all staff must adhere to,” the statement said.

“No staff are above this code, and we are grateful and encouraged that a Mater staff member who witnessed the incident brought this matter to our attention.”

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