WEBVTT - Episode 9: Mind Games 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.600 My name is Hedley Thomas. Sick to Death is based 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:10.880 on my book of the same name, and it's the 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:15.400 true story of doctor Jayant Patel's lies and manipulation and 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.319 the herculean effort it took to finally stop him. We've 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.720 used voice actors throughout this series, and on occasion the 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.000 real people from the story have read their words for us. 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.960 It is brought to you by me and the Australian 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:46.280 Chapter thirty nine Strange Meetings. Three point fifty pm, seven 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:52.000 April two thousand and five. Tony Hoffman giggled nervously in 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.680 the foyer of the old orange brick Queensland Newspapers building 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.360 near the top of Campbell Street, Bowen Hills. She had 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.040 come from a conference in, of all places, the Clinical 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:07.840 Practice Improvement Center at the nearby Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:12.280 I could see the massive complex from my desk. The 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.160 fortunate timing of the conference in Brisbane meant that she 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.920 had an opportunity to meet me while many of her 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.400 colleagues in Bunderberg were feeling severely bruised by Gordon Nuttle 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.200 and doctor Steve Buckland. 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.240 Karen is here to give me back. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:31.200 Up, Hoffman explained, introducing her friend and colleague Karen Fox. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.680 She doesn't trust journalists and she thinks I'm mad for 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:35.240 meeting you. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.360 The blunt honesty moments after meeting at the front counter 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.360 was a good start. As a precaution, Hoffman elected to 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.880 sign the visitor's book as Jane English. Her friend signed 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:53.560 in as Sue James. They liked their assumed names. It 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.160 was a relief to leave my desk. My previous meeting 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.000 with an elderly man who had been battling his low 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.880 local council for a decade over the use of an 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.680 asbestos linked product in road base near his home was 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.480 heavy going. His story had potential, but I doubted it 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.120 would get a run unless there were people who could say, 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.920 I'm dying of mesothelioma now because my incompetent counsel put 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.440 this lethal stuff near my home despite the obvious risks. 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:27.120 That's because stories warning of safety risks paled beside stories 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.919 in which the result of unsafe practice was at once obvious. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.560 I walked Hoffman around to the staff cafe, pointing out 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:40.560 departments on the way. She seemed keen to talk about anything, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:45.440 perhaps just to lower her anxiety levels. Her friend eyed 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.520 me suspiciously and refused to utter a word. Can you 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:53.280 tell me about the complaints involving the surgeon, I asked. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.560 Hoffman began talking in a rushing torrent of names, dates, 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.280 and medical terms. It was a struggle to keep up, 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.600 and then she went faster. Her nervousness was driving her 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.520 to try to spit out the entire two year debarcle 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.160 in a few frantic minutes. As Sky news blared on 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.320 the overhead TV and her friend stared daggers at me. 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.359 Something had to give. I started to wonder about her 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:27.000 state of mind. Clearly she was deeply agitated clumsily. I 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:29.600 tried to calm her down, but it sounded more like 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:34.080 a rebuke. Tony, can we do this slowly, one fact 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.400 at a time, please, I'm starting from a long way behind. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.240 She paused and began again. 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.400 There were so many botch ups with the patients, and 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.080 it continued on and on until this one big incident, 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.440 the straw that broke the camel's back, and it took 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.560 five months after that complaint. The nurses from the renal 0:03:55.640 --> 0:04:00.800 unit complained, the infectious control nurses complained. In between all 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.160 this we would be having the patients with complications coming 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.920 into the intensive care and pretty much on a daily basis, 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.200 we would have a patient in ICU with some stuff 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.920 up because of what he had done. Since his saw 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.040 came out in Parliament, the doctors have stood up and 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.880 defended him, and they were the ones who two days 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.360 before had been trying to get us to defend and 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.800 protect their patients. All we were trying to do was 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.240 to stop him from operating on patients and harming them. 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.880 He would tell us he was a cardiac, thoracic and 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.599 trauma specialist. When we looked him up on the web, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.159 he just had an MBBS from a university in Pakistan. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.000 He thought that he could do everything. Even an acting 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.040 Director of Medicine, doctor k Snidem, sent a letter saying 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:50.960 he had full faith in him and would allow him 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.720 to operate on his children. Peter Leck has got up 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.480 and said he was appalled that it had been leaked 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.719 and that it was not due process. But where was 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:04.719 the due process for the patients? The district manager stood 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.240 up for the hospital n items stood up for the doctors, 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:12.120 but the nurses were gagged. Nobody stood up for the nurses. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.560 Jerry Fitzgerald when he interviewed me. Did not even have 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.240 a copy of the complaint. He had not read it. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.839 His report is with the director general. Now, a physician 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:27.479 was hiding a patient in the intensive care so Patel 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.599 could not get to him. And this was just recently. 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.960 We literally were throwing ourselves across the patients to stop 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.120 him from getting to them. After all that, we were 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.480 seeing this guy got employee of the month. We were 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.839 seeing this guy being rewarded while we lied to families 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.279 and protected patients and felt sick about what was happening. 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:52.839 We've been crying for months. Patel had one hundred percent 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:57.840 complication rate with catheters. Every one of his patients got infections. 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.279 He used to lie in the patient's notes. One was 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.440 on one hundred percent oxygen and being kept alive with medication, 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.160 and Patel wrote that he was stable in his notes. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.920 The nephrologists refused to let him operate on his patients. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.320 The hospital knew that this was going on because they 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.919 had set up an alternative way for their fistialers and 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:23.800 vasque catheters to be put in. 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.359 Hoffman's account was shocking. We spoke about Patel's claim of 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.440 earning the hospital an extra five hundred thousand dollars a year. 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.200 To meet the budget and surgical targets. Hospitals have to 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.640 do a certain amount of surgery. Hospitals make money from 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.840 surgical procedures. Because he was turning through the surgery. He 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.560 was making them money. 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.400 Where is he now, I asked. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:54.880 We've been told that Patel has left for good. Martin Carter, 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.920 the director of intensive care and anethesua. He called him 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:02.320 all the names under the son. He called him doctor death. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.400 But when the chips were down, they supported him. The 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.800 doctors called for the whistleblower to be identified and made 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.960 an example of I was told that they perceived the 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.200 nurses have all the power and that they could be next. 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.880 Some of the patients really liked him because he talked 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.560 a lot. He was incompetent, and he had a God complex. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.480 He was not malicious. He just did not realize how 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:32.160 incompetent he was. The system has failed us. It does 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.440 not allow us to be taken seriously. 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.760 At that moment, Hoffman's mobile phone began to ring. She 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:44.680 apologized and reached into her handbag. As she listened, her 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.000 face lost color and she bawled her free hand into 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.040 a fist. The caller was Gail Aylmer at the hospital. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.720 I can't believe it, they said, what no. 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:01.400 Hoffman ended the phone conversation. The composure she had worked 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.120 hard to maintain in our interview was gone. She dabbed 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:05.640 her eyes. 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.040 The Director General and Gordon Nushall were just there, and 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:13.080 they said that seeing as it was sleeked, they're not 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.600 going to release the report. They had nothing to say 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.080 to vindicate the nurses. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.160 The chance call to Hoffman's mobile clinched it for me. 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.040 The visit by Nuttle and Buckland to the hospital was 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.800 unusual and, to the best of my knowledge, had not 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.120 been foreshadowed in media releases. If the essence of the 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.880 stern talk by Nuttle and Buckland had been conveyed accurately 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.960 to Hoffman, it was I suspected a crude attempt to 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.480 contain the Pateel problem while waving a big stick at 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.959 any staff who might have been involved in the allegations 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.760 being aired. It felt like the start of a cover up. 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.560 I told Hoffman the issue of Betel's competence might take 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.080 ages to investigate, but the meeting today gives me an 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.920 opportunity to put the story back on the agenda. I'll 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.079 call Gordon Nattle's office and find out why they are 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.800 trying to shut this down. We walked back to the 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.760 foyer and resolved to stay in touch. Hoffman and Fox 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.679 were booked on the last Quantus flight back to Bunderberg. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.880 Dan Bergen, one of the manager's for Queensland Health, remained 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:29.000 angry about the leaking. He emailed Peter Leck shortly after 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:34.680 five PM, as Steve Buckland stewed over the Patel negligence revelations. 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.959 Peter, is there a process going on involving internal order 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:39.160 to investigate. 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.400 This, Leck, still in the dark on Patel's United States 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.240 secret was uncertain how to manage the problem. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.600 I must admit that I'm not entirely sure where to 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.320 go from here. In the meeting with the staff today, 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.560 the DG advised that we would not have a witch 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.000 hunt and that we needed to move on from this incident. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.320 Bottom line is that, regardless of whether an investigation is 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.720 held or not, I don't believe the culprit who leaked 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.439 this information will be found. While on one hand, I 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.600 would like to send a strong message to the person 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.160 or persons concerned that they are on very dangerous ground 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.760 I am concerned that such an investigation could prove very destructive, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.680 resulting in nurses and doctors going after one another. Perhaps 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.520 we have the audit team come up and deliver some 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.440 training sessions around the code of conduct and deliver some 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:27.200 firm and scary messages. I would welcome your advice, especially 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.760 if the Director General's office is expecting action in a 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:31.000 particular way. 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:44.160 Peter Chapter forty Fluke, six pm, seven April two thousand 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:49.600 and five. News coming out of left field late in 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.400 the day is always more difficult to place in any newspaper, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.320 as the story has not been the subject of a 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.400 briefing in editorial conferences. It has to knock something else 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.560 out to get in. Unless it is momentous and urgent, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.199 perhaps an aircraft crash or a political upheaval, its prospects 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.240 of a good rama poor. Such stories are often held 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.880 for the next day, and that can kill them slowly. 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.320 Stories held over can appear stale despite not having been run. 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.160 Something else invariably comes along to compete for the print 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.880 space in the newspaper, sometimes on a slow news day 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.880 or when the best laid plans go awry because the 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:37.479 promised stories have failed to materialize. The late and unexpected 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:41.280 ones are hailed as saviors, but most of the time 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.520 they are a nuisance. The Knight editor has to change 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:49.559 course and rebuild pages in the face of an unforgiving deadline. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.880 I was keen to publish the story about Gordon Nuttle 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.640 and Steve Bucklan going to Bunderberg and telling staff nothing 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.840 would be done about Jayon Patel. It was breaking news. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.560 It had been presented to me on a platter. A 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.000 few minutes after showing Tony Hoffman and Karen Fox out 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.280 of the building, I saw Graham Lloyd, the news editor. 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:17.320 Perfect After I explained the story, Lloyd suggested postponing. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:20.400 It, mate, it's pretty tight, the paper's full. Do it 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.840 as part of your bigger young for Saturday, and it'll 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:23.840 get a much better run. 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.959 After working closely with Lloydy for six years, I had 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.559 enormous respect for his judgment and advice. We had jointly 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.320 delivered some powerful scoops from the newspaper's features section when 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.760 he was in charge of it. Although disappointed that Nuttle 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:42.920 and Buckland would be off the hook for the moment, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.680 I figured it might make my scheduled lunch with the 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:50.280 Minister the next day, less uncomfortable. One of Gordon Nuttle's 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:54.160 closest friends, Brendan mckennery, had called me earlier in the 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.160 week to confirm the low key meeting at the Hellenic 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:01.800 Club in South Brisbane. When he first set it up, mckennery, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.520 whom I knew through a mutual contact, explained that Nuttle 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.960 wanted to develop a working relationship with a few senior journalists. 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:14.400 Nuttle had big plans for Queensland Health. The private lunch 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.600 at the Hellenic Club would give him an opportunity away 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.040 from his minders and advisors, to set out its future. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.840 I went back to my desk for my car keys 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.079 as David Fagan, the editor, wandered over. He was unhappy. 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.280 What a shocking day. We haven't got one story worthy 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.040 of putting on the front page. You haven't got anything 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:37.240 in your back pocket, have you. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.920 He asked me. In the past six years at the 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:45.640 Courier Mail, neither Fagan nor his predecessor Chris Mitchell had 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.120 come to me to ask for a story late in 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.760 the day. They were too busy for a start. They 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.400 relied on their staff to talk about the big fish 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:58.439 in a news editorial conference after the reporters had reeled 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:02.280 them in. For David Fagan to come into our section 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.520 sometimes known as Writer's Block or Poet's Corner, he must 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.160 have been desperate. He was looking for a splash, the 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:15.240 major story for the front page. I've got a great yarn, 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.280 I told him, relating the suspected cover up in Bunderberg 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.880 and the meeting I had just had in the cafe. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.960 All I need is confirmation from Gordon Nuttle's office. I've 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.400 got heaps of background. The doctor has left Queensland. Do 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.400 you want me to write it as the splash? Fagan 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:33.440 was noncommittal. 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.680 Possibly write it as soon as you can and we'll 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:37.680 take a close look at it. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.920 I called David Potter's mobile phone, but it was turned off. 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.840 He was still in the air, en route from Bunderberg 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.640 to Brisbane. He would hear my message on landing. The 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.600 next call was to Cameron Milner, the son of the 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:56.520 former Queensland Labor Minister Glenn Milner. Cameron Milner was working 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:01.600 as Potter's pr sidekick in Gordon Nuttle's office. He's on 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.160 the plane, Milner said of Nuttle. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.120 He went to open the Spring Shore Community Center and 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.520 on the way back he dropped into the Bunderberg hospital, 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.120 he spoke with staff before doing a tour. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.480 The conversation became fascical when I asked about Jerry Fitzgerald's 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.280 clinical audit and report into Pateel's surgery at the hospital. 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.720 It's not a report into doctor Pateel, he said, It's 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.320 a clinical ordit to look at the range of services 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.160 and surgery done at the hospital to determine whether appropriate 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.840 surgery is being done there. The complaints about Patel were 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.600 about particular types of surgery he was carrying out. 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:43.440 Having heard at length from Hoffman about the surgeon's incompetence, 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.920 the deaths attributed to him, the work of Fitzgerald, and 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.760 the surprise visit that afternoon by Nuttle and Buckland, I 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:56.680 responded aggressively to the spin from Milner. It was nonsense 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:01.400 to suggest that Patel's competence was not under scrutiny. Why 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:05.760 did these people always twist the truth? For a few 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.520 minutes we went back and forth arguing about the clinical review. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.760 Milner stuck stubbornly to the script. When I questioned him 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.600 about what had triggered the review, given that it was 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.120 not a routine matter, he dropped his guard. 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.360 It was prompted by the complaints arising from surgery being 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:25.800 conducted by doctor Ptel. 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.800 Finally we were getting somewhere. I asked Milner to tell 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.040 Nuttle and Potter to contact me urgently. My next care 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.240 was to the mobile telephone of doctor John Scott, the 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.320 Deputy Director General of Queensland Health, as I did not 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.880 have a contact number for Jerry Fitzgerald and it would 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.920 be at least thirty minutes before I heard from either 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.360 Potter or Nuttle. Perhaps John Scott could shed some light 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:57.760 on what was unfolding. I wanted to see or hear 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:02.280 about the report, which and had told me Fitzgerald had 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.480 already completed. How did the report's completion square with what 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.240 Buckland and Nuttle had apparently told the meeting in Bunderberg 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.800 earlier that the denial of natural justice and Petel's departure 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.200 meant it would not be finalized. Doctor Scott knew little 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.920 about the report by Fitzgerald. He said, here, we are. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.400 Looking at an individual and there's a range of things, 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.000 including natural justice, that you have to consider when thinking 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.159 about release. This is the Chief Health Officer doing a 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.679 review of a particular person's conduct. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.360 Exasperated at being told nothing, I began hitting the keyboard 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.159 to write the story Fagan wanted. I could write the 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:51.160 bones of it and add flesh. Upon hearing from Nuttle's side, 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:55.000 I called a medical source and explained the issues. He 0:17:55.080 --> 0:18:00.280 became angry at his employer's cover up culture. Potter earned 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.679 my call at six thirty PM. I told him I 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.600 was preparing a story about the meeting a few hours 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.719 earlier at the hospital, and I asked him to have 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:14.000 Nuttle call me. Potter rang back and said Nuttle would 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.800 not be available. I didn't know if Potter had been 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.040 told about the lunch planned with Nuttle for the next day. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.679 Maybe there had been a deliberate decision by his boss 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.439 not to brief him, but I decided against using the 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:33.359 engagement as leverage. It incensed me that the minister would 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.280 not speak for himself about the meeting in Bunderberg. Why 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.919 doesn't he have the ticker to talk about the meeting, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.840 I asked Potter. The likable and efficient media advisor, a 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.639 former courier male colleague with whom I had worked on 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.280 a number of stories, ignored the barbs for the record. 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.280 He told me Nuttle had not seen the report. The 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.879 department had not seen the report, and the Minister. 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:00.880 Does not now expect to get. 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.040 A report, Potter told me, because it. 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.520 Can't be completed without going back to Dr Patel. Obviously 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:08.840 we can't go back to him because he's packed up 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.600 and gone. Due process was not followed. We have said 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.280 we are very disappointed about that. 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.399 After goading Potter again about Nuttle's timidity, he agreed to 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:23.640 double check. He called back to advise me that Nuttle 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:29.840 would definitely not be calling me. When I wrote the story, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.639 I led it with the news of the visit, how 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.280 Nuttle and Buckland had admonished staff and told them there 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.320 would be no report. Kim Sweetman, the chief of staff, 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.919 looked at the filed copy shortly after seven pm, and 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.560 she asked me about a single line in the story. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.400 It stated that the nurses were asked to hide patients 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:52.400 from Patel, so. 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.080 The nurses were literally trying to hide patients from him. 0:19:55.080 --> 0:20:00.399 In the wards, Sweetmen asked she seized on the angle 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.840 and elevated it to the top of the draft. The 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.760 mental imagery was too powerful. David Fagan liked the story, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.040 but in his walk about in the newsroom, he had 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.719 found another relating to the beat government's failure to address 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.960 the dangers of asbestos in hundreds of public schools. My 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:24.320 report led page three beneath the headline nurses hid patients 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:29.480 in wards from Doctor Death, but it contained an embarrassing 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.840 error in the first paragraph. I had failed to properly 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:38.520 check on Patel's background. He was from India, not Pakistan. 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:41.240 This is what my story stated. 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.800 Nurses at Bunderberg Base Hospital were asked to hide patients 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.080 so they would not be treated by a Pakistan trained doctor, 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:54.840 dubbed doctor Death by colleagues. The doctor, who has fled 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.720 the country since the beginning of an investigation into his 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.760 work at the public hospital, has been been accused of 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.119 gross incompetence linked to the deaths of at least fourteen patients, 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.359 but Health Minister Gordon Nuttle will keep secret a report 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.000 detailing evidence about the deaths and a trail of serious 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:18.080 injuries suffered by patients at Bunderberg Base Hospital. The report 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.520 by Chief Health Officer Jerry Fitzgerald includes evidence gained from 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:27.040 interviews with doctors and nurses at the hospital. Queensland Health 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.040 sources described the doctor hired more than two years ago 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:36.080 under the controversial overseas trained doctor's scheme as dangerous and incompetent. 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.800 They say his actions have been extremely harmful and in 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.720 some cases lethal to more than fourteen patients, and were 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.719 an indictment of the health system for its failure to 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.640 respond to complaints two years ago. Patients who have been 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.760 harmed and the relatives of those who have died are 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:59.120 demanding an explanation from Queensland Health about the doctor's proficiency 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.840 and condor. The Courier Mail has been told of how 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.320 at least one specialist at the hospital was so concerned 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.160 he pleaded with nurses to hide his patients in various 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.959 wards to prevent them from being seen by the doctor. 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.400 But mister Nuttle and Director General, Doctor Steve Buckland yesterday 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.080 went to Bunderberg Base Hospital to tell a confidential staff 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:24.560 meeting that the evidence gathered by Queensland Health in relation 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.240 to the doctor's conduct would not be made available. They 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.919 admonished staff for leaking some of the evidence, which embarrassed 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:35.200 mister Nuttle because it was revealed in State parliament last 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.399 month before he was aware that an investigation by his 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:42.120 own chief Health officer was under way. The doctor whose 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.960 Queensland Medical Board registration lapsed last week, quit his job 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.640 and left Australia at Easter, days after the concerns were 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:50.680 made public. 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.080 Accompanied by a file photograph of Gordon Nuttle. The story 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.160 continued with a quote from my medical source about how 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:02.360 it was an outrageous comp that the doctor's departure had 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:06.280 been used by Queensland Health to end its investigation and 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:10.840 pull down the shutters. It included the accusations made in 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.080 State Parliament at a reference to the Queensland Health report 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:17.080 that I had been leaked in late two thousand and three, 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:21.320 warning that a growing number of overseas trained doctors rushed 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:26.080 into the public hospitals, lacked medical competence and capability and 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:30.240 put patients at risk. The adrenaline was still flowing when 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:33.399 I left the office. On the way home, I dropped 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.480 into a bar for a beer with my colleague Des Houghton, 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:40.640 who had been writing about the Betty Government's secret state culture. 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:45.760 Deirs was fascinated by the Bunderberg Hospital story. He reckoned 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:51.040 there had to be much more to it. Steve Buckland 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:55.520 left the taxpayer owned aircraft and headed home, as Darren 0:23:55.600 --> 0:23:59.360 Keating had done the night before. In Bunderberg. Buckland went 0:23:59.400 --> 0:24:02.840 to his home computer to search for details about Jayant 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:08.840 Pateel's United States registration. It took him some time after 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.879 he located the relevant sites in Oregon and New York State, 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:16.879 and then navigated the options until the truth about Patel's 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:22.960 incompetence appeared. He made printouts. Buckland called Jerry Fitzgerald at 0:24:23.000 --> 0:24:27.440 home and told him of the stunning findings. They agreed 0:24:27.480 --> 0:24:30.639 that Fitzgerald should tell the Medical Board. As a matter 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:34.840 of urgency. Buckland knew he had to deliver the political 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:39.320 dynamite to Gordon Nuttle too. He decided to wait a day. 0:24:40.280 --> 0:24:43.560 More time would help him develop a strategy which might, 0:24:43.880 --> 0:24:48.679 if they were fortunate, limit the damage. If Patel's secret 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.919 past leagued before everyone was back in the position of control, 0:24:53.359 --> 0:25:02.120 the damage could be incalculable. Forty one put it in writing. 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:08.679 Eight April two thousand and five, Brisbane's Gung Home morning 0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:13.600 radio journalist Steve Austen for six to twelve ABC introduced 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:17.919 the story with gusto. The line about nurses hiding the 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:22.760 patients had grabbed his attention. His producer tracked Rob Messenger 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:25.359 down in Sydney and quickly put him on the air 0:25:26.119 --> 0:25:31.000 Austin relating the Courier Male's page three lead story, asked 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:35.720 Messenger if he felt vindicated now. The novice Bunderberg MP, 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:40.320