Hospitals plan to swap details

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Tauranga hospitals are considering sharing information about doctors to fill a gap that allowed a surgeon to work unrestricted at one, while another had curtailed his work.

State-owned Tauranga Hospital placed restrictions on Dr Ian Breeze's bowel surgery in August 2000 because of concerns arising from his care of Lionel Crowley, who died in December 1999.

In September 2001, the hospital banned Dr Breeze from doing all but minor surgery.

Yet he continued doing bowel surgery at the private Norfolk Community Hospital, which merged with the city's Southern Cross Hospital in December 2001.

Southern Cross withdrew his "privileges" to do bowel surgery in 2000, the chairman of the merged hospitals' company, Michael Ludbrook, said yesterday.

But Norfolk did not curtail Dr Breeze's surgery - because it was not told of the restrictions elsewhere and had no evidence of problems - until the merger, Mr Ludbrook said.

On December 6, 2000, about a year before the merger, Dr Breeze performed bowel surgery on Barry Baker, 69, at Norfolk. Mr Baker died 25 days later in Tauranga Hospital after undergoing a second operation there by Dr Breeze on his stomach, then a third, because of leakage.

Mr Ludbrook did not criticise the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, which runs Tauranga Hospital, over not informing Norfolk of the restriction on Dr Breeze. "It's their information. I guess they are subject to confidentiality," he said.

But in the last three months, the board and his company had discussed setting up a knowledge-sharing protocol.

"[Under it] information such as this can be exchanged so that we do know what's happening in one another's service in respect of clinicians that operate in both facilities."

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson dismissed a complaint from Mr Baker's family about Dr Breeze's care of him.

But the commissioner is considering reopening that investigation and one about another of Dr Breeze's deceased patients after pressure from the families following the surgeon being found guilty of professional misconduct over his care of Mr Crowley.

Mr Crowley died of a severe infection within five days of bowel surgery.

The Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal ordered Dr Breeze to pay more than $50,000 in a fine and costs, but decided against imposing conditions on his practice because, on the information it had, the poor care of Mr Crowley was a "one-off series of events".

The Medical Council put Dr Breeze on supervision and a retraining programme in bowel surgery after a 1997-2001 audit of his colorectal surgery raised concerns.

National Party health spokeswoman Lynda Scott has alleged in the House that Mr Crowley's case is part of a wider pattern of poor care by Dr Breeze.

Dr Breeze's lawyer, Harry Waalkens, has said the MP's "witch-hunt ... is gross and unreasonable" and that the surgeon's complication rate is within international parameters.

Dr Breeze has been on holiday and unavailable to comment. He is due back at work on Monday.

Ron Dunham, chief executive of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, said he would meet the surgeon on Monday to plan the progressive lifting of his restrictions.

"We're mapping out a process of credentialling him back so we can be assured his practice is up to the standards we require."