Sounding alarm on doctor

By PHIL TAYLOR AND MARTIN JOHNSTON

The Health and Disability Commissioner should have a system that alerts him to doctors who attract an unusually high number of complaints, says a specialist involved in reviewing the death of patient Lionel Crowley.

Mr Crowley died in December 1999 after routine surgery to remove a cancerous growth in his bowel.

The surgeon, Dr Ian Breeze, was found guilty in August of three counts of professional misconduct and fined and ordered to pay costs totalling $50,000. But the tribunal did not put restrictions on his practice because, as far as it knew, this was "a one-off series of events".

Yet earlier concerns about Dr Breeze had caused him in 1994 to be ordered to undergo retraining in bowel surgery and commissioner Ron Paterson has fielded six complaints about the surgeon's work.

In two cases - which Mr Paterson is now considering reactivating - the patients died after surgery.

In the case of 69-year-old Barry Baker, Dr Breeze operated at Norfolk Community Hospital to remove a bowel tumour a year after Mr Crowley's death and at a time he was banned by Southern Cross and Tauranga Hospitals from such surgery.

Mr Baker died of multiple organ failure caused by infection.

The same cause of death was identified in an autopsy on Mr Crowley.

By the time of Mr Baker's operation, Dr Breeze had been restricted to minor surgery by Tauranga Hospital and Southern Cross.

But Norfolk had not followed suit, claiming it was not told of restrictions elsewhere and had no evidence of problems.

The specialist, who requested anonymity, said claiming ignorance smacked of "butt-covering".

"The surgeons who worked in Tauranga Hospital [where Mr Crowley died] at the time owned Norfolk Hospital and everybody knew this case. It wasn't shut up - everyone knew."

It was "outrageous" that Mr Crowley's widow, Shirley, had had to battle for almost four years to get a ruling from the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.

"It's the old slogan, slow justice is no justice, for anybody, Mrs Crowley or Dr Breeze."

The commissioner needed a system where his office could detect whether certain doctors attracted an inordinate number of complaints.

All of the cases involving Dr Breeze had been dealt with in isolation "and no one picked up the scent that there were [several] cases which ought to have been dealt with at the same time", he said.

Mr Paterson said the commissioner's office already had systems to alert investigators to cases possibly involving serious failings and to doctors about whom multiple complaints had been laid.

The Medical Council started a review of Dr Breeze's competence during and as a result of his office's investigation, Mr Paterson said.

A surgeon, who also requested anonymity, said some form of wider inquiry was now needed.



Restrictions, bans


In 1994, Dr Ian Breeze was ordered to undergo retraining in bowel surgery.

Tauranga Hospital placed restrictions on his bowel surgery in August 2000 because of concerns arising from his care of Lionel Crowley, who died in December 1999.

Southern Cross Hospital withdrew his "privileges" to do bowel surgery in 2000.

In September 2001, Tauranga Hospital banned Dr Breeze from doing all but minor surgery.

He continued doing bowel surgery at the private Norfolk Community Hospital until its merger with the Southern Cross in December 2001.