Russian doctor 'out of his depth' in Queensland public hospital

He killed a patient by incompetence but he's still working in the system. If I was a public hospital patient in Queensland I would refuse to be touched by an "overseas-trained" doctor

Another overseas-trained doctor scandal erupted at the health inquiry yesterday after allegations a Russian surgeon botched procedures and contributed to the death of a Bundaberg patient. The surgeon, Dr Anatole Kotlovsky -- now employed at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital -- was singled out by a more qualified former colleague from Bundaberg who said the Russian-born medico appeared to be well out of his depth.

Dr Lakshman Jayasekera told inquiry commissioner Geoff Davies, QC, he was called in by a nurse to provide urgent help for the patient. He said he was not working when "I received a telephone call from a theatre nurse, whose name I recall only as Gail, (who) called me and asked me to come in, using the words 'Lucky, can you come in as we have a patient who is going to die on the table'." "I immediately went to the hospital and I found a patient that was in the process of being operated on by the Russian doctor and he had conducted an operation on this patient not knowing what to do."

Dr Jayasekera, an Australian-qualified surgeon and fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said he completed the operation successfully and complained to a superior who asked him to supervise Dr Kotlovsky in future. But he said that a few days later the Russian doctor "messed up" a second operation and had gone against advice about how to do the procedure. "He ignored my instruction and carried out the difficult operation without my supervision and caused damage to the patient, so much so that the patient was evacuated to the Gold Coast Hospital for urgent emergency treatment and I understood that that patient passed away," Dr Jayasekera said.

Dr Kotlovsky was employed at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in early 2002, a year before the arrival of rogue surgeon Dr Jayant Patel, whose negligence has since been linked to the deaths of 13 patients. Dr Kotlovsky, 48, whose curriculum vitae lists numerous qualifications from Russia before he became an Australian citizen in 1994, told The Courier-Mail yesterday he had never been made aware of the allegations.

Dr Kotlovsky described the allegations as "absolutely incredible". "I would like to know what they are talking about," he said. "It is completely incorrect. I remember all my patients at Bundaberg Base Hospital."

In evidence at the inquiry last month, Dr Kees Nydam, a member of Bundaberg hospital's management team, described the case of Dr Kotlovsky as "a bit of a disaster". Dr Nydam said he questioned if Dr Kotlovsky ever had the pediatric surgery qualifications he claimed to have achieved in Moscow. "Nursing staff, junior medical staff said 'this guy is a bit funny, we don't know exactly what'," Dr Nydam told former inquiry commissioner Tony Morris, QC. "I was particularly keen to get Lucky's co-operation in providing some degree of supervision."

A suppression order on Dr Kotlovsky's name, sought by Medical Board lawyer Ralph Devlin, was lifted late yesterday by commissioner Davies. Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Steve Hambleton said Dr Kotlovsky position at RBWH raised several questions about why that hospital needed to have overseas trained surgeons because it was classified as an "area of need".

Source

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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. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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