YOUR REGULATORS WILL PROTECT YOU

Mentally ill doctors allowed to practice

The supervision of more than 90 doctors still practising despite having drug, alcohol and health problems is in question after an independent report condemned authorities for failing to support a heavily medicated mentally ill GP and protect her patients. Christina Wong, a former junior general practice trainee at Inala, in Brisbane's southwest, was deregistered for five years in 2002 after prescribing incorrect medication and dosages and failing to complete a minor surgical procedure while clinically depressed and on six different drugs.

But a review of the case by Jonathan Phillips - a consultant psychiatrist, member of the Australian Medical Council and former Director of Mental Health in South Australia - has criticised authorities for allowing Dr Wong to keep practising despite being a regulated mental health patient at the time. "Simply, if Dr Wong, or any other person, had been impaired to the point where she needed to be a regulated patient, then she was totally unfit to be working as a medical practitioner in any setting," Dr Phillips said in his report. "At no point in my career have I ever heard of a regulated patient being allowed to continue professional duties as a medical practitioner."

Dr Phillips criticised Dr Wong's treating psychiatrist, her employer and the Queensland Medical Board, which was meant to be supervising Dr Wong under its health assessment and monitoring program.

Latest figures show more than 90 doctors are working under the program in Queensland due to various impairments involving drugs, alcohol or mental health issues. Dr Phillips said he was "uncomfortable" about the punishment meted out to Dr Wong and believed others should have shared responsibility in her case. Dr Phillips was called in by Queensland Health after repeated approaches from Dr Wong and criticism from Queensland's deputy Ombudsman.

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WAITING LIST COVERUP

In Australia, the "Liberal" party is the major conservative party

Queenslanders wanting to have elective surgery are being put on a waiting list to get on a waiting list, the state Liberals said. Liberal Health spokesman Bruce Flegg said the head of the Queensland Health Systems Review, Peter Forster, had confirmed the existence of the "unofficial" waiting list during public hearings in Brisbane last night. Health Minister Gordon Nuttall has denied the existence of two waiting lists.

Dr Flegg said Mr Forster's revelations had rendered Queensland's official waiting lists not worth the paper they were written on. He said it was time for Premier Peter Beattie "to cough up the true state of Queensland's waiting lists and give patients a chance to make informed choices about their healthcare". Dr Flegg said because of the dual waiting lists he believed Queenslanders could be forced to wait up to five times as long for elective surgery. "With a little honesty from Mr Beattie the real waiting lists could save lives and be published with little or no extra cost to taxpayers," he said. "Mr Beattie and his lame duck health minister have conducted a farcical media campaign insisting that Queensland's waiting lists are the best in the country when the official lists are totally meaningless and do not even remotely reflect the time taken to access medical care in Queensland."

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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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