Surgeon cleared for work at Ascot

By Catherine Masters and Audrey Young

The surgeon who replaced the wrong hip of an elderly patient has been cleared to operate again on public patients at the private Ascot Hospital in Auckland.

Orthopaedic surgeon Joe Brownlee was forbidden by the Health Funding Authority (HFA) from operating on the 170 public patients it sent to the private hospital under contract for urgent surgery.

But yesterday the authority's personal health general manager, David Moore, said Mr Brownlee was to perform two more operations. Both patients had agreed to his doing their surgery.

Mr Moore said an independent review had shown the mistake was a clear case of medical error.

The hospital has agreed to implement recommendations in the review about the marking of limbs in order to provide an extra degree of patient safety.

Mr Moore said the funding authority was satisfied about Mr Brownlee's ability to perform operations safely.

"What happened to him was an unfortunate error. It's happened to other surgeons but fortunately it is relatively rare."

He commended Mr Brownlee and the hospital for the prompt way in which they raised the error with the HFA and how they had dealt with it subsequently.

A copy of the review will be sent to all orthopaedic surgeons and public hospitals.

The chairman of the Ascot, Dr Richard Fisher, had said the hospital was very happy with Mr Brownlee's work.

Meanwhile, a Government MP yesterday attempted to make light of the Ascot operation botch-up, calling it "two hips for the price of one."

National list MP Roger Maxwell asked if his colleague the Minister of Health, Wyatt Creech, could assure Parliament "that the Ascot incident that he referred to is not a new policy seeking to get two hips for the price of one."

Mr Maxwell was referring to the Ascot's offer to do the proper hip for free.

Mr Maxwell - who is retiring next election - also asked for statistics on the incidence of such errors.

Mr Creech said ACC had advised that since July 1, 1992, there had been 13 claims for "wrong procedures of various kinds, including wrong knee, toe, leg or side of body."

"These errors have occurred in both the public and private facilities and in GPs' surgeries.

"They are all regrettable and I will be seeking information on how the risk of errors occurring can be minimised."

To questions from Labour's health spokeswoman, Annette King, Mr Creech denied that the contract with the HFA had been rushed through.

"I am advised that the time frame over which the contract was negotiated was entirely adequate given the number of procedures involved - 170."