LEGAL PIRANHAS STRESS OUT DOCTORS

Even a flimsy case is stressful

In June 2000, I received a request for Millie's records from a local attorney. I quickly contacted my insurance carrier, and with their approval I sent the records. I didn't hear anything further until March 2002, when I received a "notice of intent" to file a claim. It identified Millie, Harry, and their daughter as plaintiffs. The suit was filed that September, just before the statute of limitations ran out.

It accused me of negligence for failing to properly diagnose Millie's cancer; for not consulting with her other treating physicians; and for enrolling her in a hospice program when her condition wasn't terminal. The plaintiff's expert, a board-certified FP from West Virginia, attested to my alleged negligence. The suit claimed damages for medical expenses; physical and emotional pain and suffering; mental shock, fright, and anguish; humiliation, mortification, and embarrassment. In addition, Harry claimed damages for his loss of Millie's consortium.

Needless to say, I was stunned. Not only that Millie was suing me (I was sure that Harry was really the driving force behind the suit); but also that a local attorney would actually pursue such a weak case. I quickly informed my carrier of the suit, and they assigned an attorney to defend me. After reviewing the records, he announced that my case was definitely worth defending. That pleased me greatly, since I didn't feel like settling. Our experts then reviewed the records and declared this a nuisance suit without merit. Nevertheless, I was told to prepare for a lengthy process, and to plan on adjusting my schedule to accommodate the necessary depositions and hearings.

We scheduled a deposition with Millie and Harry, and my attorney urged me to attend it. Shortly before that date, during a visit to the hospital, I noticed Millie's name on the inpatient list. The following week, my attorney called to tell me the scheduled deposition had been cancelled because of Millie's illness. Soon afterward, she died, at age 75. Millie's death made it difficult for Harry to pursue the case, since their chief complaint had been that she hadn't died. His attorney eventually contacted our attorney and offered to drop the case, which he did, and it was dismissed.

I still have bitter feelings toward that attorney, though. I wonder if he appreciates or cares how such a nuisance suit can disrupt a doctor's life, and cause him significant "pain and suffering." Since this is a small town, I'm sure I'll run into him at some point, and perhaps I'll address the matter directly with him. For me, this case was an exceedingly stressful and time-consuming experience. I'm still upset that despite having helped Millie through her difficulties, and thereby extending her life, I was wrongly accused of negligence. Ironically, if she had passed away sooner, I probably wouldn't have been sued.

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MORE BETRAYAL OF THE PUBLIC IN QUEENSLAND

Sexual abuse complaint in 1996 and still nothing done. Only the innocent were punished


An inquiry by the Health Rights Commission into serious clinical and systemic complaints at a public mental health unit headed by a struck-off senior psychiatrist took 4½ years and did not result in a final report. The commission's head, David Kerslake, yesterday conceded that the significant inquiry – which began after the referral of a complaint in January 1996 and culminated in a letter in July, 2000, to the Cairns District Health service – "took too long". "From the view of any of the parties involved, I would have expected it to be done more quickly," he said. "We have reviewed our processes since and they do not take that long now. It does not automatically follow when looking into a major complaint that you do a report at the end of it."

The investigations involving the integrated mental health unit and its then head, Keith Muir, began three years after he was struck off in New Jersey for having sex with two vulnerable patients and one year after he had been struck off, in 1995, in New York State. But Mr Kerslake defended the failure of investigators to detect Dr Muir's past, which would have prevented him becoming the most senior public hospital psychiatrist in far north Queensland had it been known. He said his investigators could not be expected to inquire outside their scope or to duplicate the work of the Medical Board of Queensland, which is meant to vet and register doctors from Australia and overseas.

The complaints by psychiatrist Annette Johanssen to the commission a decade ago included her assertions that Dr Muir had engaged in sexual misconduct himself by touching her thigh and the thigh of another woman staffer. The commission is not empowered to act on sexual matters between staff, but a separate Queensland Health investigation, which also failed to detect Dr Muir's past, exonerated him but found against Dr Johanssen. Mental health professionals said she left soon afterwards, largely because she had blown the whistle and subsequently been singled out and punished.

Dr Muir, who was appointed director of psychiatry at Cairns Hospital on July 21, 1992, and transferred in 2003 to Nambour Hospital, has vigorously defended himself against the serious findings and claims made against him.

Mr Kerslake said that at no time in the investigation were there "complaints about sexual misconduct involving patients at Cairns Base Hospital – and if there were, they would have been referred to the medical board". "We conducted a major investigation into clinical and systemic issues," he said. Responding to Queensland Health's statement that the investigation "did not complete", Mr Kerslake said: "We clearly wrote to the hospital and we clearly confirmed that certain changes have been made and we closed off the complaint."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation.

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