Qualification checking !

Disgraced surgeon Jayant Patel was handed a two and a half year suspended sentence for fraud in the Queensland court this week and is free to return to the United States.   He bluffed his way into being appointed chief of surgery at Bundaberg hospital in 2003 - with disastrous results.

Patel was hopelessly under qualified and his efforts with a scalpel resulted in convictions for three counts of manslaughter and one of grievous bodily harm, for which he served two and half years in prison before being acquitted on appeal over a technicality.

Patel lied on his application for the job in Bundaberg and the selection people did not learn that he had been banned from major surgery in the American state of Oregon in 2000, and struck off the register of physicians in New York in 2001.    At least this disaster has shone the spotlight on deficiencies in the Australian qualification checking procedures which relate to overseas registered doctors.

How could a doctor with such glaring deficiencies slip through the net and get work as the chief of surgery in an Australian hospital ?   The people tasked with doing proficiency checks have a lot to answer for - and not the least of that is the lives lost by his sheer negligence.    The public has every right to know that those responsible have been removed from office - and that new procedures for checking qualifications are now in place to guarantee that such a disgraceful error can not be repeated.

One of the factors that influenced the decision to give Patel the job appears to be letters of reference from fellow doctors in the United States.   When the investigation into the Bundaberg deaths called on those who had written these references it was revealed that a very " in club " atmosphere existed within the medical profession.

It was common for those with only a fleeting acquaintance with another doctor to provide a glowing reference because that was the custom within the profession.    It seems that this is often the case throughout many other industries and even when someone is dismissed because of incompetence,  a glowing letter of reference is provided to help that unfortunate person gain another job.

Patel - now 63 - will shortly leave Australia and the Bundaberg case is now closed.   It is unlikely that he will gain another position anywhere in the medical profession, but at least there will be a benefit gained here if this
disaster has resulted in qualification checking being upgraded to a level where mere lies and spurious references fail to distort the system.