30 more women line up against specialist

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

The Medical Council has received complaints from 30 more patients against Northland gynaecologist Dr Graham Parry.

The Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday rejected the Northland Health surgeon's latest bid to be allowed to resume working.

He asked on Wednesday - at the end of the tribunal hearing on his substandard treatment of Colleen Poutsma, a Paihia 48-year-old dying of cervical cancer - that his suspension be lifted.

The tribunal is yet to rule on the disgraceful conduct charge Dr Parry faced at the hearing.

Auckland lawyer Antonia Fisher said yesterday that she had sent complaints from 30 women to the Medical Council in the past week.

Many of them had suffered serious complications following surgery, particularly from hysterectomy operations.

She said ACC had made findings of medical misadventure - mishap or error - in 18 of the women's cases, which dated back to the late 1980s.

Medical Council spokeswoman Susan Pattullo said that 27 of the 30 complaints were new and were being investigated. Two others had previously been dismissed and a third found not proven.

Two complaints assessment committees have been set up to investigate the complaints and will decide whether they warrant fresh charges against Dr Parry at the disciplinary tribunal.

The Health and Disability Commissioner's office says it has launched formal investigations into three further cases and is making preliminary inquiries into two more.

The commissioner investigates complaints dating from July 1, 1996; the Medical Council looks at earlier ones.

One complainant, Kaikohe 61-year-old Gael Nisbet, said the women involved were still considering a class action in court against Dr Parry, "depending on what the Medical Council does."

She said the women's complaints included misplaced stitches and perforated bowels or bladders.

ACC awarded her more than $14,000 for medical misadventure after a bladder operation by Dr Parry involving permanent sutures went wrong in 1991.

Dr Parry's lawyer, Christopher Hodson, QC, said he was not surprised by the number of "so-called" complaints, "in view of the media beat-up."

"But how many turn out to be real complaints that are new is another matter."

Ms Pattullo, meanwhile, said the Medical Council was reviewing its privacy policy of not telling health services about competence reviews of their doctors while these were under way.

She rejected Northland Health criticism that the council did not adequately inform it about a competence review of Dr Parry, which was triggered by Mrs Poutsma's complaint to the commissioner.

Northland Health has said the only advice the council gave was a "private and confidential" letter to its head of obstetrics and gynaecology, with nothing sent to the management.

But Ms Pattullo said the council had telephoned Northland Health's chief medical adviser and that was sufficient.