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Speaker 1: My name is Hedley Thomas.

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Speaker 2: Sick to Death is based on my book of the

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Speaker 2: same name, and it's the true story of doctor Jan

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Speaker 2: Patel's lies and manipulation and the herculean effort.

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Speaker 1: It took to finally stop him.

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Speaker 2: We've used voice actors throughout this series, and on occasion

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Speaker 2: the real people from this story have read their words

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Speaker 2: for us.

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Speaker 1: It is brought to you by me and the Australian.

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Speaker 2: Chapter sixty eight The Doctors, August two thousand and five.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Jeff de Lacy peered at the woman's abdomen and

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Speaker 2: tried to disguise his immediate bewilderment. He looked again and

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Speaker 2: shook his head. There was no mistaking what had happened.

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Speaker 2: The question was why the woman had been operated on

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Speaker 2: by Jan Patel for a hernia. He repaired it. She

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Speaker 2: returned to him with a bowl obstruction, not an unusual

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Speaker 2: complication from a recurrent hernia, But Patel's technique of hernia

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Speaker 2: repair was unique, not something De Lacey, a well qualified

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Speaker 2: surgeon in private practice in Bunderberg, had ever seen before.

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Speaker 2: One of the problems common to hernia repairs is inadvertent

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Speaker 2: damage to other anatomical structures. When the woman went back

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Speaker 2: to uptel, the small bough was vulnerable. It would have

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Speaker 2: been unfortunate, but not unacceptable, for a single stitch used

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Speaker 2: in the hernia repair to pass through her small bow.

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Speaker 2: But something bizarre had happened. If Delacey had not seen

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Speaker 2: the needle patchwork with his own eyes, he would not

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Speaker 2: have believed it possible. He observed that stitches had passed

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Speaker 2: through twenty loops of the small He wondered if it

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Speaker 2: was incompetence on a remarkable scale, or something else, something deliberate.

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Speaker 3: What it represents, in my experience, is the most hand

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Speaker 3: fitted attempt at repairing a hernia I'd ever seen. It's

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Speaker 3: certainly possible to catch a loop of bow during closure

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Speaker 3: of an abdomen. I found it impossible to envisage how

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Speaker 3: you could go through the bow with every stitch and

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Speaker 3: not notice unless you are looking out the window, you know,

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Speaker 3: rather than at the patient. And there have been a

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Speaker 3: lot of other examples of the sort of errors of

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Speaker 3: that magnitude.

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Speaker 2: The evidence of Delacey at the inquiry was riveting in

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Speaker 2: a macab way. It made me wonder about Patel's motive

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Speaker 2: if he were to mount an insanity defense, arguing that

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Speaker 2: he had lost his mind, some of his botch ups

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Speaker 2: and clinical decisions, as described by doctor de Lacey, would

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Speaker 2: be easier to understand. Tony Hoffman suspected that Patel might

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Speaker 2: have caused the complications to some of the patients so

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Speaker 2: that when they returned to his care, he would know

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Speaker 2: how to fix the very problem he had caused.

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Speaker 4: It's a sickness. He craves attention and adulation. He wants

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Speaker 4: the other doctors to think he's brilliant. He was prepared

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Speaker 4: to ruin healthy organs to make himself look good as

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Speaker 4: the surgeon doing the repair.

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Speaker 2: More than one hundred and fifty patients and their medical

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Speaker 2: files were examined by doctor Delacey in the weeks and

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Speaker 2: months after the PTEL story broke. The more Delacey, who

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Speaker 2: had performed dozens of corrective procedures, looked at their injuries

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Speaker 2: and the documentation, the more he realized how dangerous and

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Speaker 2: dishonest Beatel had been for the two years he was

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Speaker 2: at the hospital.

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Speaker 3: One of the points that I'd like to make if

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Speaker 3: I could, was that I'm not certain that the magnitude

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Speaker 3: of his errors, the number of problems that he's had,

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Speaker 3: the number of destinies had has ever been sort of

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Speaker 3: a apropriately compared to what we might have expected him

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Speaker 3: to have. And these things aren't just things that happened

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Speaker 3: to an average general surgeon at all. They're not ten

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Speaker 3: times what you might expect. They're more like a hundred

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Speaker 3: times what you might expect.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Delacey had decided there was no rational explanation for

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Speaker 2: the number of patients Betel insisted on taking to theater,

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Speaker 2: or the complexity of the operations he performed. Many of

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Speaker 2: these patients should have been sent home they were too

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Speaker 2: frail or sick to undergo major surgery.

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Speaker 3: He saw operations as an end to themselves, not as

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Speaker 3: a way of treating patients, not as a way of

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Speaker 3: improving their health, in my opinion.

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Speaker 2: Tony Morris asked whether, in Delacey's observations of Patel's handiwork,

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Speaker 2: the surgeon was at the low end of an acceptable

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Speaker 2: degree of competence. Doctor Delacey replied.

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Speaker 3: Far worse, far worse. I've looked after complications in the

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Speaker 3: last four months that I've never seen before. I've had

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Speaker 3: an opportunity to sort of assess his decision making both preoperatively,

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Speaker 3: interoperatively and postoperatively and it was terrible. Terrible care doesn't

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Speaker 3: necessarily result in terrible outcomes, It just results in an

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Speaker 3: increased likelihood of those outcomes being terrible. And for example,

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Speaker 3: with patients who have had cancer removed, whether they will

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Speaker 3: or will not have their cancer back in five years,

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Speaker 3: and you can generate a statistical risk of that happening.

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Speaker 3: They certainly don't have symptoms of cancer at the moment,

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Speaker 3: but because of what doctor Patel has done or not done,

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Speaker 3: they have got an increased risk of their cancer coming

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Speaker 3: back in five years.

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Speaker 2: He explained how when a segment of a hollow tube

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Speaker 2: is removed, a typical example being part of a large

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Speaker 2: bowl that contains a bowel cancer, two ends have to

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Speaker 2: be joined together again to re establish the continuity of

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Speaker 2: the gastro intestinal tract. In technical terms, the join is

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Speaker 2: an astamosis, a key part of the operation. After an operation,

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Speaker 2: the recovery of the patient often hinges on whether the

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Speaker 2: join leaks or heels. Doctor de Lacey said.

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Speaker 3: If it leaks the contents of that tube in this case,

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Speaker 3: the bow spills out into the rest of the abdomen

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Speaker 3: with peritonitis and death. If they don't have another operation,

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Speaker 3: and certainly there were many examples in doctor Patel's surgery.

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Speaker 3: And astamoses do leak in the best hands, they don't

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Speaker 3: all leak, and certainly the number of leaks that I

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Speaker 3: have seen would be, you know, grossly excessive. I didn't

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Speaker 3: see any evidence that he judged his outcomes at all.

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Speaker 3: If there was a problem, then it was inadequate suture material,

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Speaker 3: or the practicing in a third world hospital, which is

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Speaker 3: how he described Bunderberg based hospital, or something else, some

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Speaker 3: other issue, some reason the patient had done something wrong

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Speaker 3: or whatever. And I suspect, you know, from talking to

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Speaker 3: a lot of these patients and assessing his work, that

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Speaker 3: he never had judged the outcomes. He had having these problems,

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Speaker 3: certainly in the States, it seems for ten or twenty years,

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Speaker 3: and he spent his whole career not fixing up these

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Speaker 3: fairly basic problems because they weren't his problems. They were

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Speaker 3: somebody else's problems.

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Speaker 2: Before he became involved in looking after Patel's patients, many

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Speaker 2: of whom no longer trusted the public health system. Doctor

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Speaker 2: Delacey doubted the stories that I had written about Patel's incompetence.

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Speaker 2: He suspected the allegations being made by the nurses and

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Speaker 2: the patients were exaggerations. Having met Patel a few times

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Speaker 2: in the hospital, doctor de Lacey regarded him as arrogant

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Speaker 2: and controlling, but the opportunity to witness his surgical techniques

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Speaker 2: had not arisen, but his view changed.

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Speaker 3: I've got a different opinion now. My opinion now is

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Speaker 3: that the real story of what was going on there

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Speaker 3: was worse. That the number of patients was ten to

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Speaker 3: one hundred times more than I thought there would be,

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Speaker 3: and that the type of complications that were allowed to

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Speaker 3: happen there were grossed by comparison to what I was expecting.

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Speaker 3: We certainly didn't know that he was the subject of

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Speaker 3: numerous inquiries overseas, but he did, and a lot of

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Speaker 3: these issues, the subverted mortality and morbidity meetings, the failure

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Speaker 3: to transfer patients, his relationships, of lack of relationships with

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Speaker 3: other staff were explainable, in my opinion, by just a

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Speaker 3: design not to have his work checked for fear of this.

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Speaker 5: I guess of.

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Speaker 2: The one hundred and fifty plus former Patel patients seen

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Speaker 2: by Delacey, fewer than twenty were well managed by the

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Speaker 2: former director of surgery. The overwhelming majority were victims of

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Speaker 2: a standard of care below that of a reasonably competent surgeon.

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Speaker 2: Doctor Delacey cited the example of one middle aged woman.

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Speaker 3: Numerous investigations were done and doctor Pateel came to the

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Speaker 3: conclusion that the patient had a diagnosis called schemic colitis,

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Speaker 3: which is poor blood supple the bow. She had an

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Speaker 3: operation which would have been appropriate for someone with a

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Speaker 3: schemi colitus, but was not appropriate for someone with Crone's disease,

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Speaker 3: which is what she actually had. She had a very

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Speaker 3: difficult post operative course that survived. She has been left

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Speaker 3: with most of her bow having been removed. Her day

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Speaker 3: to day lifestyle is that she passes between twelve and

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Speaker 3: twenty loose bowel motions per day. She was eighty five

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Speaker 3: kilograms now she's fifty six kilograms. All of these people

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Speaker 3: have those magnitude of problems. It is a long listening

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Speaker 3: of medical problems.

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Speaker 2: Before he operated on the patients to attempt to correct

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Speaker 2: the problems Patel had created or worsened. Doctor Delacey regarded

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Speaker 2: Patel's notes as slipshod. After a number of operations, he

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Speaker 2: no longer had faith in Patel's notes. They were fundamentally dishonest,

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Speaker 2: like the man himself. The notes repeatedly and falsely purported

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Speaker 2: that various risks and complications were explained to the patients,

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Speaker 2: or that there were no problems after theater.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Delacey said.

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Speaker 3: A lot of it is rubbish. There must have been

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Speaker 3: somebody dying on the surgical ward all the time, and

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Speaker 3: there must have been horrendous complications physically being managed on

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Speaker 3: the surgical ward all of the time. Those closest to

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Speaker 3: him were most threatened by him, and he spent most

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Speaker 3: of his energy intimidating or otherwise isolating his practice from them.

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Speaker 3: There are systems in place, albeit faulty ones, to try

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Speaker 3: to prevent this from happening, and my personal opinion is

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Speaker 3: that this tragedy wouldn't have occurred unless there was both

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Speaker 3: active subversion by the individual and complacency at best by

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Speaker 3: the supervising body that was supposed to identify these problems.

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Speaker 3: In my opinion, there was a predisposition in the system

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Speaker 3: to allow a rogue surgeon to be placed in this

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Speaker 3: position of power and allowed free reign.

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Speaker 2: Whereas doctor Delacy witnessed serious surgical complications, Doctor Peter Woodriff,

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Speaker 2: the primary expert witness was struck by an unusual omission

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Speaker 2: after his examination of patient's notes, charts and X rays.

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Speaker 2: In forty seven thousand pages of material related to two

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Speaker 2: hundred and twenty one patients, a small sample of the

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred men, women and children as young as six

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Speaker 2: treated by Patel in his two years at Bunderberg, Doctor

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Speaker 2: Peter Woodroff could not find a single letter or document

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Speaker 2: written by Patel to seek the opinion or advice of

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Speaker 2: another specialist or doctor. Worse than that, there was not

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Speaker 2: one letter from him about his management of his patients

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Speaker 2: or their outcomes. As Ralph Devlin, the lawyer for the

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Speaker 2: Medical Board, put it, Patel had operated in splendid isolation.

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Speaker 2: The highly regarded vascular surgeon Peter Woodrooff said, I.

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Speaker 6: Have no hesitation in saying that his performance was incompetent

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Speaker 6: and that this before womance is far worse than average

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Speaker 6: or what one might expect by chance.

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Speaker 2: Although he regarded Patel's complication rate as frightening, Woodroff was

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Speaker 2: determined to remain objective, dispassionate and impervious to the horror stories.

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Speaker 2: Woodrooff was also limited by the terms of reference of

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Speaker 2: his Queensland Health sponsored review. He examined nobodies only documents,

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Speaker 2: many of them the work of a surgeon with a

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Speaker 2: record of dishonesty in the absence of the patients. Peter

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Speaker 2: Woodroff gave Patel the benefit of the doubt in a

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Speaker 2: number of cases. As a leading figure in the Royal

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Speaker 2: Australasian College of Surgeons, Peter Woodroff had seen firsthand the

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Speaker 2: reluctance and fear of politicians to introduce major health care reforms.

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Speaker 2: The politicians were always worried about a voter backlash. Doctor

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Speaker 2: Woodroff told me how he had once made an irrefuse

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Speaker 2: case for systemic change to a former federal health minister,

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Speaker 2: doctor Michael Wooldridge, and Wooldridge had replied to him, yes,

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Speaker 2: you're right, we are going to get onto it straight

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Speaker 2: after I have removed the old age pension. Doctor Woodruff

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Speaker 2: had been around operating theaters long enough to know surgical

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Speaker 2: mistakes were inevitable and in many cases acceptable. The practice

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Speaker 2: of surgery was not a benign undertaking, but provided you

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Speaker 2: were honest and corrected your technique or reconsidered whether the

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Speaker 2: approach was even justified, Occasional errors of judgment would not

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Speaker 2: normally lead to disqualification in surgery. Doctor Woodroff knew of

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Speaker 2: colleagues who were defensive to the point of concealing mistakes

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Speaker 2: or pretending that they just didn't occur. Pride and the

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Speaker 2: aggression of personal injury lawyers were contributing factors, but Patel

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Speaker 2: was a puzzle. Woodroof at first struggled to understand the

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Speaker 2: motives of the surgeon, whom he regarded as intelligent and industrious.

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Speaker 2: Late one evening, the answer came. As Peter Woodroof used

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Speaker 2: his laptop computer to scroll through the list of patients

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Speaker 2: who had died or suffered serious injury. It suddenly occurred

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Speaker 2: to him that the worst cases involved those procedures which

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Speaker 2: PTEL had been banned from performing in the United States.

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Speaker 6: And I wonder whether this is not the missing piece

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Speaker 6: of the mosaic that I was ignorant of. A wonder

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Speaker 6: if his motivation for doing these quite outlandish operations is

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Speaker 6: not to try and reassert in his own mind that

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Speaker 6: what he's been precluded from doing in Oregon he is

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Speaker 6: in fact capable of doing, and that he is in

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Speaker 6: effect recredentialing himself, if only in his own mind.

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Speaker 2: Woodroof said, after so much speculation. The pin pointing by

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Speaker 2: Woodruff the Lacey and another senior surgeon, doctor Barry o'lachlan,

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Speaker 2: of many examples of atrocious care for the patients of Bunderberg,

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Speaker 2: was distressing. Tony Morris was reminded of something attributed to

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Speaker 2: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish practitioner and creator of the

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Speaker 2: character of Sherlock Holmes.

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Speaker 7: When a doctor goes wrong, he is the first of criminals.

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Speaker 7: He has nerve and he has knowledge.

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Speaker 2: My concerns revolved around the knowledge of the other doctors

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Speaker 2: with whom Patel had worked closely. I had difficulty understanding

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Speaker 2: how Nurse Tony Hoffman, who had no surgical training and

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Speaker 2: had never seen Patel operate, knew instinctively that he was

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Speaker 2: dangerous and she did something about it. Yet several doctors

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Speaker 2: in Bunderberg who worked beside the director of surgery did not.

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Speaker 2: Did the other doctors believe that Patel had virtues? Was

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Speaker 2: the silence part of the culture spoken of by Woodruff.

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Speaker 2: It was the view of the Chief Health Officer, doctor

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Speaker 2: Jerry Fitzgerald, that the anisthetists were in the best position

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Speaker 2: to judge the competence of a surgeon, but doctor Martin Carter,

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Speaker 2: the anisthetist in charge of the intensive care unit at

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Speaker 2: Bunderberg for the two years Pettel was director of surgery,

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Speaker 2: was at pains in his evidence to absolve himself of

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Speaker 2: any responsibility. Doctor Carter said.

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Speaker 8: I knew Tony Hoffman had concerns about doctor Petel's competence.

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Speaker 8: Unfortunately for an understanding between us, the idea of what

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Speaker 8: we're in a position to do about these sorts of

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Speaker 8: things is different between nurses and doctors. It takes a

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Speaker 8: long time for one to work out whether you can

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Speaker 8: actually prove almost effectively in a court of law that

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Speaker 8: the person you are talking about is incompetent to do

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Speaker 8: what they are saying they can do, and stop them

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Speaker 8: doing it. I mean, if you, as a barrister or

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Speaker 8: solicitor were continually losing cases, nobody would go to you,

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Speaker 8: but at least you wouldn't be sort of losing anything

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Speaker 8: other than your livelihood. Here in terms of a surgeon

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Speaker 8: or a physician or a psychiatrist or whatever, how do

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Speaker 8: you know when they're missing things that they shouldn't miss,

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Speaker 8: or whether what's happening is basically beyond anybody's sort of care.

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Speaker 7: You told us very candidly that you didn't like the man.

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Speaker 7: You found him brash and abrasive and so on. Was

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Speaker 7: it your sense that there was almost a degree of

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Speaker 7: meglomania in it, that he thought he'd come from America

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Speaker 7: to show this little country town how surgery is done,

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Speaker 7: and he just saw no limits to what he could

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Speaker 7: or should do.

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Speaker 8: I think that probably would be a reasonable way of

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Speaker 8: expressing it, certainly more polite than mine.

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Speaker 2: Carter saw himself as responsible for keeping the patients alive,

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Speaker 2: pain free, and unresponsive during surgery, monitoring the vital signs,

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Speaker 2: and ensuring the flow of appropriate medication.

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Speaker 8: It is very difficult to also monitor the surgery at

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Speaker 8: the same time. In my opinion, doctor Patel was not

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Speaker 8: the worst surgeon that we had at the hospital. It

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00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,600
Speaker 8: was not the best surgeon, but in my experience, there

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00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:19,960
Speaker 8: had been worse at the hospital.

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, nobody at the inquiry asked doctor Carter to identify

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Speaker 2: those surgeons whom he rated as more incompetent than Patel.

293
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,199
Speaker 2: Nor was Carter asked whether he had taken steps to

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Speaker 2: bring those unnamed surgeons to the notice of authorities.

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Speaker 1: Chapter sixty nine, The collapse one.

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Speaker 2: To two September two thousand and five, after fifty days

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Speaker 2: of public hearings, more than five thousand pages of transcript evidence,

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Speaker 2: and the unearthing of maladministration as well as negligence in

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00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:06,760
Speaker 2: surgery at Bunderberg Hospital and elsewhere. Tony Morris was close

300
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:11,400
Speaker 2: to the end. The inquiry chief was considering major reforms

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00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:15,920
Speaker 2: that might save countless lives. The legal action by Peter

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00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 2: Leck and doctor Darren Keating threatened to sabotage the reform agenda.

303
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Speaker 2: Near the end of the month long wait for Supreme

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Speaker 2: Court Justice Martin moynihan's decision, Tony Morris had become desperate

305
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Speaker 2: to stave off an in glorious end to his delicately

306
00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,919
Speaker 2: poised inquiry. He assured Leck and doctor Keating that he

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00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 2: was not proposing to make findings against them. He extended

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00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,440
Speaker 2: a similar undertaking to the former health ministers Wendy Edmund

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Speaker 2: and Gordon Nuttle, and the Sack Director General, doctor Steve

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Speaker 2: Buckland and his deputy, doctor John Scott. They all basked

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Speaker 2: in immunity as Morris placated key witnesses and aim to

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Speaker 2: blame the system for the obvious shortcomings. I wondered if

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Speaker 2: there was anyone left to be held responsible for this

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Speaker 2: health disaster. A legal contact had confidently told me that

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00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:16,040
Speaker 2: moynihan would oust Morris and.

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Speaker 1: Kill the inquiry.

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Speaker 2: It was based on a cryptic comment that the judge

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00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:24,600
Speaker 2: was said to have made. The comment was a picture

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00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,879
Speaker 2: tells a thousand words. The cliche was a reference to

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00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,480
Speaker 2: the hours of footage subpoened from the television stations that

321
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:39,160
Speaker 2: showed Morris responding emotively, sarcastically and caustically while questioning Lek

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Speaker 2: and Keating. The footage lent devastating force to the legal bid,

323
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,200
Speaker 2: but ironically it was only available due to the unusual

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Speaker 2: decision of Morris to allow cameras into the inquiry in

325
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Speaker 2: the first place. Before the fiftieth day of public hearings,

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Speaker 2: Richard Douglas had dogged but unfailingly courteous lawyer had joined

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Speaker 2: the Fray to help the flagging inquiry team. Douglas was

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00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:12,560
Speaker 2: fresh and methodical. He pushed hard for political explanations for

329
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Speaker 2: the subterfuse that had been practiced with the waiting list

330
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Speaker 2: for surgery. He understood how political paranoia about the list

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Speaker 2: was part of the explanation for the Bunderberg hospital disaster

332
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Speaker 2: and the culture of concealment in the health system.

333
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Speaker 9: Do you agree that to wax lyrical and press releases

334
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Speaker 9: about short waiting times for elective surgery without referring in

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Speaker 9: the same breath to the particulars of the unofficial list

336
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Speaker 9: is to put it at its lowest misleading?

337
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:47,520
Speaker 2: He asked the Health Minister, Wendy Edmund. Essentially. Edmund argued

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Speaker 2: that it was much more complicated, and that she had

339
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Speaker 2: originally intended to release all the lists when sworn in

340
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Speaker 2: as Health minister, but she had soon realized they were

341
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Speaker 2: political dynamite. The inquiry he had been a lawyer's picnic

342
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,919
Speaker 2: at a cost two taxpayers of more than one hundred

343
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 2: thousand dollars a day, but at that stage the patients

344
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:13,359
Speaker 2: and their families had not experienced emotional or financial compensation.

345
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:17,720
Speaker 2: They feared the prospect of the inquiry being shut down

346
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:22,000
Speaker 2: by the judge. Karen Oriole, the mother of Shannon Mobs,

347
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:25,119
Speaker 2: the boy whose leg was amputated, said.

348
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Speaker 10: Our lives have been catastrophically changed by what has occurred.

349
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:32,520
Speaker 10: My son has been forced to endure a further eight operations.

350
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,440
Speaker 10: He will have to learn to walk again with the

351
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,280
Speaker 10: aid of a prosthetic limb. We have to live with

352
00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,639
Speaker 10: the constant thought that my son's leg could have been

353
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Speaker 10: saved if he had received appropriate medical treatment. It is

354
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Speaker 10: almost unbearable for me to have to hear the evidence,

355
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,560
Speaker 10: as I am tortured with thoughts of if only my

356
00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 10: son had not been exposed to doctor Patel and had

357
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Speaker 10: been transferred to a Brisbane hospital.

358
00:22:56,080 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 2: One of the inquiry's legal sleuths Angus Scott had a

359
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 2: whip just one hour until either the guillotine comes down

360
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,439
Speaker 2: or the gates open, he said. On the afternoon of

361
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:13,120
Speaker 2: Thursday one September, my friend and colleague Amanda wat perched

362
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:17,360
Speaker 2: over the reporter's desk in Court fifteen waiting for the decision.

363
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,640
Speaker 2: The gloomy room was crowded. There was tension and muffled

364
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:27,119
Speaker 2: murmuring until Justice moynihan entered. He was so impassive he

365
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:31,840
Speaker 2: might have been pronouncing on a trivial neighborhood dispute matter

366
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,359
Speaker 2: of factly, as if he made similar rulings every other day.

367
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 2: He found in favor of Peter Leck and doctor Darren Keating.

368
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Speaker 2: Justice moynihan ruled that Tony Morris had indeed shown ostensible bias.

369
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Speaker 1: Amanda what and I reeled.

370
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Speaker 2: The finding surprised Premier Peter Beatty, but it outraged Queenslands.

371
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:59,600
Speaker 2: Evening polls by the TV stations drew record responses from

372
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 2: viewers who overwhelmingly condemned the judgment.

373
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: Beryl Crosby said, it.

374
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Speaker 11: Best feel like I've been hit with a brick.

375
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: She told me.

376
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 2: There's Bramwich's widow, Tess, who went to almost every day

377
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,840
Speaker 2: of the public hearings, was distraught.

378
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: She said, I.

379
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 4: Feel like they're trying to bury this, that it's about

380
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 4: politics again and not the patients.

381
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 12: But I will never rest.

382
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 2: Tony Hoffman sent me a message that she wanted forwarded

383
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 2: to Tony Morris.

384
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 4: When the ruling came down today, there was personal outrage

385
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,679
Speaker 4: from the staff at the hospital. I'm extremely angry that

386
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 4: Premier bet has allowed this inquiry to be sabotaged. It

387
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 4: was an honor to be a part of, at least

388
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,439
Speaker 4: what we attempted to do to make Queensland Help a

389
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 4: safe place to work and more importantly, a safe place

390
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 4: to be a patient.

391
00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 2: Despite his earlier pledge to appoint another Inquiry chief in

392
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:03,120
Speaker 2: the event of Tony Morris being ousted, Peter Beatty seized

393
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,680
Speaker 2: on the chance to end the political pain since jay

394
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 2: On Patel became a household name just eighteen weeks earlier.

395
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,679
Speaker 2: The premier had lost his personal standing, a mountain of

396
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 2: political capital, two by elections, a health minister, and a

397
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 2: handful of top administrators. The Health department was in meltdown,

398
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 2: and now the public blamed him for a judicial finding.

399
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,320
Speaker 2: He decided that there would not be a second inquiry,

400
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 2: breaking his earlier promise. Morris was sipping coffee with his parents,

401
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: Graham and jan in a George Street cafe when his friend,

402
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 2: lawyer Tony Barlow tipped me off.

403
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:45,640
Speaker 1: To their whereabouts.

404
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 7: All is not lost, Morris said, if there is any

405
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 7: personal disappointment, it's because I feel that I have let

406
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 7: down all of these people.

407
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,919
Speaker 2: And his mother said, I think you got too emotionally in.

408
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 13: No.

409
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 7: As one of the patients said in the Journal of

410
00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 7: Record The Courier Mail this morning, how could you not

411
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,120
Speaker 7: be biased when you see and hear what's going on

412
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 7: And Peter Leck and Darren Keating are not making any

413
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 7: explanation for it. They were not losing their spouse, or

414
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 7: their limbs or their bowels. The Supreme irony of all

415
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 7: this legal action by Leck and Keating was to protect

416
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 7: their reputations, and I just wonder what good it's done

417
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 7: to their reputations.

418
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 2: Graham Morris commended a cartoon in the Gold Coast Bulletin.

419
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,200
Speaker 2: It depicted Peter Leck and Darren Keating saying too maimed

420
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,880
Speaker 2: patients of Betel, Oh, yeah, you think you suffered? When

421
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,920
Speaker 2: the commissioner asked us questions, he didn't say pretty please

422
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:51,479
Speaker 2: with sugar on top, the big meanie. But Peter Beatty

423
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 2: ruled out an appeal despite compelling legal submissions by Jerry Mullins,

424
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 2: the lawyer for the patients, who urged the appointment of

425
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 2: a new inquiry head to direct the near complete show

426
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 2: to its conclusion. Beattie had given instructions to wind it up.

427
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:13,080
Speaker 2: The spurious justification cited was that all the evidence had

428
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 2: been contaminated. There would be no substitute inquiry chief, no findings,

429
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 2: just costly failure. To soften the blow, Bettie put the

430
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:28,240
Speaker 2: final touches to a generous compensation deal for the patients.

431
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 2: If the money were right, maybe they would keep relatively quiet.

432
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 2: Doctor Keating, almost expressionless in the public hearings, was seen

433
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 2: laughing by one of my colleagues on George Street after

434
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 2: the verdict, Peter Lex. Solicitor Patricia Feeney, who felt very

435
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 2: strongly that her client was harshly treated by the inquiry,

436
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,439
Speaker 2: looked delighted with the outcome as she strolled from the

437
00:27:54,480 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 2: court's complex in the absence of another inquiry, I was depressed,

438
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 2: although it was hard to admit openly in my heart,

439
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,160
Speaker 2: I knew Morris went too far and had at times

440
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 2: played favorites. He had become the major performer of a

441
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,119
Speaker 2: drama so strange no one could have dreamt it. Like

442
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 2: many a brilliant man before him, his successes were spectacular

443
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 2: and his failures disastrous. A number of key witnesses were

444
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 2: adamant that the extravagant behavior of Morris had persuaded them

445
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 2: to give evidence.

446
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 14: It is precisely mister Morris's particular style that gave me

447
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 14: the confidence to come forward and speak the truth without fear.

448
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: Doctor Charles Nankevill told me.

449
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 14: I support him without reservation. I agree fully with doctor

450
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 14: Peter Cook's comments about it being a once in a

451
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 14: lifetime opportunity. Indeed, when I retire and look back on

452
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 14: my medical career, I will regard that having contributed to

453
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,200
Speaker 14: this inquiry, and thus to have helped all Queensland as

454
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 14: to an improved health system, will be a major highlight.

455
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 2: Many of the lawyers and judges around town believed that

456
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 2: Tony Morris had made a fool of himself and got

457
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 2: everything he deserved. Key inquiry staff, particularly the hard working

458
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 2: and talented lawyer Damian Atkinson, who knew the evidence down

459
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 2: to the finest details, were crestfallen. What a waste, lamented

460
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 2: Wayne King, one of the investigators. But Morris was only

461
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 2: briefly daunted. Having ensured his place in history, he began

462
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: writing a detailed report about the inquiry, the hospital and

463
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 2: the personality of Petel. Perhaps Marris felt a little guilty

464
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 2: for failing to finish.

465
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:50,480
Speaker 7: He needed more than vindication. He needed respect, He needed admiration.

466
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:52,840
Speaker 7: He needed to be valued.

467
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 2: Morris wrote in the report that he presented to a

468
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 2: Federal Parliament committee.

469
00:29:58,960 --> 00:29:59,560
Speaker 1: It was a.

470
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 2: Paragraph that might also have described the ousted Inquiry Commissioner.

471
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 1: Tony Morris continued.

472
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 7: Those whose opinions did not matter to him, especially amongst

473
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,960
Speaker 7: the nursing staff, were lucky just to be ignored. Some

474
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,720
Speaker 7: of the junior medical staff praised his care, enthusiasm, and

475
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 7: generosity as a teacher.

476
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 5: Quite conceivably, the.

477
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 7: Image of a respected pedagogue was one which suited Patel's ego,

478
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 7: but any who had the temerity to question his judgment

479
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,960
Speaker 7: or ability was swatted away like insects. Thus he surrounded

480
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 7: himself with sickophants and flatterers when he could find them,

481
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,719
Speaker 7: and was otherwise content to work with people who had

482
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 7: the good sense to keep their opinions to themselves.

483
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 2: Chapter seventy, Jeff Davies, eight September two thousand and five.

484
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: Beryl Crosby sounded.

485
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 2: Upset and frustrated when we spoke over the weekend. The

486
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 2: patients for whom she advocated were in retreat as a

487
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 2: result of Peter Beatty's lightning trip to Bunderberg to outline

488
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 2: the generous compensation package and cajole key public figures like

489
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:30,040
Speaker 2: Tony Hoffman.

490
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:32,360
Speaker 13: He's talking them around.

491
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 2: A glum Crosby told me she had been excelling in

492
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 2: a crash course in politics and leverage since being thrust

493
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 2: into a role as leader of the support group, but

494
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,320
Speaker 2: she wanted nothing less than a new inquiry, and Beryl

495
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 2: Crosby threatened to organize protest marches until she got her way.

496
00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:00,200
Speaker 2: Although Peter Beatty sounded determined to avoid any firm the

497
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:04,040
Speaker 2: scrutiny of the health system, he had underestimated the public

498
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 2: anger at the turn of events. His hasty adoption of

499
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court's ruling was a mistake. It had fueled

500
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 2: the suspicions of many Queenslanders, who unfairly blamed Peter Beatty

501
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 2: for the inquiry's shutdown. The politician's backbenches, already petrified by

502
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 2: polling showing that they faced defeat unless public sentiment could

503
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:33,040
Speaker 2: be swung around, were deluged with complaints from voters. Even

504
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 2: critics of Tony Morris believed that the inquiry's total shutdown

505
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 2: was overkill. Jeff Davies QC, a newly retired Court of

506
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 2: Appeal judge with impeccable credentials to head any new inquiry,

507
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 2: was also in that camp. Having watched the first inquiry unravel.

508
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 2: The unsentimental Davies was unsurprised by Justice Martin moynihan's ruling,

509
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 2: but Davies was troubled by some of the misinformation being spouted,

510
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 2: such as the claims that all the evidence from the

511
00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 2: Morris inquiry was contaminated and therefore of no use. Steve Austin,

512
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 2: the six to twelve ABC radio presenter, used his morning

513
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:25,720
Speaker 2: show to interview another retired and highly respected judge, James Thomas,

514
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:30,800
Speaker 2: who methodically destroyed the claims about all the evidence being contaminated.

515
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 2: There was no legal reason why a new commissioner could

516
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 2: not resume hearings, with one of the excuses for not

517
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 2: restarting the inquiry now completely discredited. Peter Beatty unhappily bowed

518
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 2: to the public demands. The most logical choice was Jeff Davies.

519
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 15: We've listened to the people, and I don't see that

520
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 15: as a crime or a sin. Too often politicians don't

521
00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 15: have the guts to listen to the people.

522
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 2: Well, I have, Beattie said, unsmilingly. Senior judges and lawyers

523
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 2: could not understand why Davies had not been asked in

524
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 2: the beginning, back in April two thousand and five, but

525
00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 2: after the Morris collapse, friends told Davies that he would

526
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 2: be mad to take it on. He weighed the decision

527
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:27,759
Speaker 2: for a couple of days before saying yes, I.

528
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,480
Speaker 16: Could see the unsatisfactory state of affairs and I don't

529
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 16: criticize the judge's decision to terminate the Commission of inquiry.

530
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,880
Speaker 16: On the contrary, I think it was the correct decision,

531
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 16: but I could see the terrible position Queensland As would

532
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 16: be in unless something was done.

533
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 2: Davies told me before his retirement early in two thousand

534
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 2: and five, I had interviewed him about aspects of the

535
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,200
Speaker 2: law that he believed needed urgent reform.

536
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,279
Speaker 16: I want to let go of the day to day

537
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,480
Speaker 16: work I've been doing. I don't, for example, doing criminal

538
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 16: appeals which involved mostly sex cases. I find them distasteful.

539
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 16: It's a very important job to do and I've tried

540
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 16: to do my best, but I do want to be

541
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 16: involved in what I believe are necessary reforms to the

542
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:21,439
Speaker 16: legal system, systemic reforms. It's one of the reasons I've

543
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:22,240
Speaker 16: retired early.

544
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:30,239
Speaker 2: His openness and thoughtful proposals were refreshing, although he expressed

545
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 2: himself carefully to avoid a mini rebellion on the bench.

546
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 2: Jeff Davies was concerned that political patronage, rather than intellect

547
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 2: and acumen, too often determined the appointment of judicial lightweights.

548
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 2: He could see the courts being stacked with mediocrity, the

549
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 2: perils for litigants were obvious because poor judges meant that

550
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:59,480
Speaker 2: miscarriages of justice became inevitable. Davies called for an independent

551
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:04,160
Speaker 2: and transparent commission to help select judges. It was one

552
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 2: of the stories that I filed before investigating the Jayant

553
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,280
Speaker 2: Patel scandal, and Davies had suggested that I should seek

554
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 2: comment on his proposals from the former Federal Attorney General,

555
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 2: Michael lavarch. I suspected that leavarch was still peeved at

556
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 2: my stories on alleged vote rauting in his former federal electorate.

557
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:26,800
Speaker 1: It was a good guess.

558
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 2: When I telephoned him as the new Dean of Law

559
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 2: at Queensland University of Technology, he told me that my

560
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 2: journalism stank and had never done a scrap of good

561
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 2: for anyone. His hostility and his comments were cutting. The

562
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:47,640
Speaker 2: episode proved my theory that journalists were hopelessly thin skinned,

563
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 2: even as they made inferences or reported facts that could

564
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 2: ruin or damage the lives of other people. But Davies

565
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 2: understood that if the media took up an issue, politicians

566
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,720
Speaker 2: usually followed, and then change might be possible. He spoke

567
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:06,960
Speaker 2: candidly of his concern about the right to silence. He

568
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 2: believed that a jury should be permitted to draw adverse

569
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:14,879
Speaker 2: inferences in relation to an accused who exercised a right

570
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 2: to silence. He was also agitating to change the law

571
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:24,640
Speaker 2: to permit the use of evidence illegally obtained. Although criminal

572
00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 2: defense lawyers vehemently disagreed with Davies and regarded some of

573
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:38,799
Speaker 2: his ideas as heresy, nobody doubted his intellectual force. On

574
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 2: the first day of the Commission of Inquiry Mark II,

575
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:44,840
Speaker 2: in Court thirty four.

576
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,440
Speaker 1: Everyone bowed respectfully and stood.

577
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:52,600
Speaker 2: To attention when Davies entered. These shenanigans were over. It

578
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 2: was as though a strict but fair head master with

579
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 2: no tolerance for the naughty pupils had come to restore

580
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 2: or to the classroom.

581
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:06,320
Speaker 16: I'll start with appearances, said Jeff Davies as he surveyed

582
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 16: the lawyers seeking permission to do battle before him. This

583
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 16: is of course a public inquiry, and unless I make

584
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:19,760
Speaker 16: any order to the contrary, all proceedings will be made public.

585
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:20,720
Speaker 1: He added.

586
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 2: Peter Leck and Darren Keating must have felt sick. Their

587
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:30,799
Speaker 2: lawyers had won the battle, but now the two hapless

588
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:36,319
Speaker 2: hospital administrators were about to lose the war. After the

589
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:41,279
Speaker 2: shutdown of the first inquiry, Lech's spirits soared from depression

590
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 2: to elation. It appeared that both men had trounced the

591
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 2: system and would not even lose their jobs despite their incompetence.

592
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 2: Neither Lek nor Keating had anticipated the public backlash and

593
00:38:55,719 --> 00:39:00,239
Speaker 2: political backflip that led to the inquiry arising anew from

594
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 2: its own ashes. Their folly in not accepting the last

595
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:09,600
Speaker 2: ditch offers of immunity from Tony Morris and thus saving

596
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 2: his inquiry and themselves became the talk of the legal community.

597
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:19,759
Speaker 2: Now all bets were off, Davies was not bound by

598
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 2: any previous undertakings or offers, and he was in no

599
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 2: mood for deals. He and the legal team of David Andrews,

600
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 2: Richard Douglas, Damian Atkinson and Eryl Moore Zone devised a strategy.

601
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:39,239
Speaker 2: They needed to hear evidence from the most important witnesses

602
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 2: culminating with Keating and Leck, then tie up dozens of

603
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 2: loose ends and produce a major report with far reaching

604
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:54,920
Speaker 2: findings and recommendations. Le's lawyers and psychiatrists were determined to

605
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 2: keep him out of court thirty four, citing the mental

606
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,880
Speaker 2: health condition that had worse, and after the grilling by Morris,

607
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:07,600
Speaker 2: lex psychiatrist doctor Martin Notthling weighed in with this opinion.

608
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 17: Individuals suffering from such a major depressive episode and generalized

609
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 17: anxiety disorder would be expected to have difficulties with concentration

610
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 17: and memory. Cognitive processes would be expected to be slowed,

611
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 17: and the organization of his thoughts would be expected to

612
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:22,760
Speaker 17: be impaired.

613
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:30,320
Speaker 2: Although sympathetic to Peter Leck's situation, former Judge Jeff Davies

614
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:34,839
Speaker 2: ruled that he must give evidence. The patients quietly applauded.

615
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:39,799
Speaker 2: Davies at no stage relished his role as commissioner, but

616
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:45,080
Speaker 2: his professionalism, measured low key handling and vast experience, put

617
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:50,600
Speaker 2: the inquiry back on track. He was inscrutable and poker faced,

618
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,719
Speaker 2: the antithesis of Tony Morris. When the story of Patel

619
00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 2: first broke, Davies had followed it from his new farm

620
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 2: apartment with avid interest. The incompetence of the surgeon and

621
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:09,040
Speaker 2: the system fascinated Davies in his retirement. On a trip

622
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 2: to the United States while the Morris inquiry was ongoing,

623
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 2: Davies had spoken to American friends about the revelations They

624
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 2: were scarcely interested he found until the following day, when

625
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:25,920
Speaker 2: The New York Times carried a lengthy story about it

626
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 2: on its front page. He brought it home as a memento.

627
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 2: Now after a life's work in law, Davies was poised

628
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:39,480
Speaker 2: to make a major impact on the health system. His

629
00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 2: persistence and the dogged work of Richard Douglas in extracting

630
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 2: secret cabinet papers, confidential emails and covered up hospital reports

631
00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 2: showed clearly that the culture of concealment was fostered at

632
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 2: the highest levels by Peter Beatty himself, although the Premier

633
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,520
Speaker 2: denied it. One of the most damning documents was a

634
00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 2: twelve November two thousand and two MIMO written by Cabinet

635
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 2: liaison officer Brad Smith about a secret decision to suppress

636
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:14,720
Speaker 2: a series of reports which had been intended for public

637
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 2: release to show how all the hospitals and their staff

638
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 2: were performing. Smith wrote this to the then heads of

639
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 2: Queensland Health, Rob Stable and his then deputy Steve Buckland.

640
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 13: Neither the proposed public report, which was attached to the

641
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 13: cabinet submission, nor any of the sixty individual hospital reports

642
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,799
Speaker 13: are to be distributed to anyone senior management can be

643
00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 13: briefed on the outcomes of the quality measurements and the

644
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,480
Speaker 13: contents of the documents, but they are not to be

645
00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,920
Speaker 13: given copies of any of this material. The Department of

646
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 13: the Premier and Cabinet advised that the Premier has emphasized

647
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 13: that Cabinet does not want this material released or circulated

648
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:54,879
Speaker 13: in any way.

649
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: For years, the Bad Government and its predecessors, including the

650
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:06,319
Speaker 2: former Coalition government, had used cabinet to hide thousands of

651
00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 2: sensitive documents. The method was very simple. Under the provisions

652
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 2: of the Freedom of Information Act, anything taken to Cabinet

653
00:43:16,360 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 2: was exempt from disclosure to the public and to journalists.

654
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 2: The extent of the abuse of freedom of information was

655
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 2: revealed when Michael Clare, a former Cabinet senior staffer, testified

656
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:33,320
Speaker 2: that he had to find a refrigerator trolley to wheeld

657
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 2: cardons of documents in and out of Cabinet, ensuring they

658
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,880
Speaker 2: would be withheld from the public four thirty years. The

659
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:47,840
Speaker 2: procedures were subsequently streamlined with legislation permitting documents to be

660
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 2: deemed to have been taken to Cabinet without the bother

661
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:55,720
Speaker 2: of actually wheeling them in. When Davies wrote to Beattie

662
00:43:55,960 --> 00:44:00,239
Speaker 2: and Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, inviting them to either put

663
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 2: up evidence to rebut probable conclusions about their egregious conduct

664
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,799
Speaker 2: or accept the potential adverse findings.

665
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: Bettie replied, I am.

666
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 15: Prepared to act to continue my government's record of openness

667
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 15: and accountability.

668
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:23,440
Speaker 2: Davies dismissed that glib line as nonsense. He began exposing

669
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 2: the deviousness of politicians and their hypocrisy, even as the

670
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:38,719
Speaker 2: Premier and his followers protested their innocence Chapter seventy one

671
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 2: forensic scrutiny. When doctor Steve Buckland's partner asked what he

672
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,800
Speaker 2: would like for Christmas two thousand and five, the sacked

673
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:52,040
Speaker 2: former Director General knew immediately.

674
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 5: I want two thousand and six.

675
00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:55,440
Speaker 1: He groaned.

676
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,759
Speaker 2: Like many of the casualties of the Jayant Petel scandal,

677
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 2: the patients, nurses, doctors and bureaucrats. Buckland arrived to give

678
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 2: his evidence at Court thirty four looking meek and beaten.

679
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 2: He had spent weeks compiling an exhaustive statement with dozens

680
00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 2: of attachments, and now he just wanted to put it

681
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 2: all behind him. Buckland believed that the ills in the

682
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 2: health system were the product of a lack of money,

683
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:29,440
Speaker 2: combined with political interference, the worsening health of patients, a

684
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:34,000
Speaker 2: workforce shortage, and doctors reluctant to admit mistakes. It was

685
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 2: little wonder that Patel had gained a toe hold at

686
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:38,920
Speaker 2: a regional hospital.

687
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,480
Speaker 18: He said, I did not create the public health system

688
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 18: in Queensland and the bureaucracy that goes with it.

689
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:51,320
Speaker 5: No individual did. No individual is especially responsible for its failures.

690
00:45:51,840 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 18: No individual can take credits for its successes. Until we

691
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 18: get beyond the culture of blaming individuals and groups for

692
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:01,239
Speaker 18: the shortcomings of a system, we will not get very far.

693
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 2: I recalled his willingness to blame one of the most

694
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 2: junior doctors, Andrew Donoman, over the death of ten year

695
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:15,000
Speaker 2: old Elise Neville, when serious health problems highlighted by that

696
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:21,680
Speaker 2: tragedy were unresolved. Beryl Crosby, still toiling tirelessly as leader

697
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:25,440
Speaker 2: of the patient support group, recalled Steve Buckland being happy

698
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:29,440
Speaker 2: to permit Patel to continue in Bunderberg, even though he

699
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 2: would not have let the surgeon operate on him. Buckland

700
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 2: wanted to resume his career as a medical practitioner and

701
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:40,960
Speaker 2: avoid the politics of the health system from now on,

702
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:45,600
Speaker 2: as he put it, but inquiry lawyer Richard Douglas needed

703
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:46,400
Speaker 2: some answers.

704
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 9: I want to make this suggestion to you, and I

705
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 9: ask you to carefully consider it before you give your answer.

706
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 9: I suggest to you that your decision on the twenty

707
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 9: fourth of March two thousand and five to in effect

708
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:02,720
Speaker 9: refrain from taking any step forth with to suspend doctor

709
00:47:02,719 --> 00:47:07,360
Speaker 9: Betel from undertaking clinical duties at Bunderberg Hospital involved a

710
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,400
Speaker 9: dereliction of your duty as Director General.

711
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 5: Sir, I reject that absolutely.

712
00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 9: I am seeking to elicit from you in respect of

713
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 9: a decision to which you are party in the conduct

714
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:22,760
Speaker 9: of Queensland Health during your time as Director General. How

715
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,560
Speaker 9: bad a surgeon has to be in order to move

716
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:29,360
Speaker 9: the Director General to cross the rubicon and suspend that person.

717
00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 18: I would have to be concerned to the point where

718
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:34,560
Speaker 18: I thought that the individual was dangerous, the patients were

719
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:37,360
Speaker 18: dying unnecessarily, or that there was some other major event

720
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 18: in terms of the surgeon's either mental or surgical capacity.

721
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:45,840
Speaker 2: In the days before Buckland gave evidence his sack, Deputy

722
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:50,680
Speaker 2: doctor John Scott, his career in tatters was melancholy. While

723
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 2: recounting political meddling in the health system. When asked if

724
00:47:55,239 --> 00:47:59,560
Speaker 2: he had identified any deficits in his own performance as

725
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:03,719
Speaker 2: a scene new bureaucrat. Doctor John Scott, the man who

726
00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 2: had two months earlier elevated a trivial dinner party of

727
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:12,480
Speaker 2: journalists at Bunderberg's Indian Curry Bizarre restaurant into a matter

728
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 2: of urgent review by the Premier and the Crime and

729
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:21,320
Speaker 2: Misconduct Commission, took some time to answer. I think probably

730
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 2: that if I look back in retrospect, I would say

731
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 2: that I probably was more of an activist for the

732
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 2: government to the Minister than perhaps I should have been,

733
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:35,120
Speaker 2: he said softly. We shook hands on his way out.

734
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,919
Speaker 2: We heard from doctor Con Roney, a leading cardiologist who

735
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,160
Speaker 2: had quit the public health system because of his disgust

736
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:51,480
Speaker 2: with management's approach to patient care. Doctor Roney regarded some

737
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 2: of his former bosses as sociopaths, as he put it,

738
00:48:56,200 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 2: for their inability to grasp the nettle. We heard too

739
00:49:01,080 --> 00:49:04,520
Speaker 2: from doctor Rob Stable, who served as Director General for

740
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:08,200
Speaker 2: eight years and left just before everything hit the fan.

741
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 2: He absolved himself of responsibility for the mess. Doctor Jerry Fitzgerald,

742
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 2: the disarming and mild mannered Chief health officer attracted sympathy

743
00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:25,759
Speaker 2: from patients and key figures, including Tony Hoffman. Although he

744
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:30,560
Speaker 2: had misled me and others about Jayon Patel, it was

745
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:34,760
Speaker 2: difficult to dislike Jerry Fitzgerald, a man who came across

746
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 2: as caring and sincere. His failure to respond properly to

747
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:43,920
Speaker 2: the Patel crisis was something Commissioner Jeff Davies would not

748
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:44,799
Speaker 2: closs over.

749
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:50,279
Speaker 16: Davies asked, you knew he had twenty five times the

750
00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 16: complication rate or prime of facie. It appeared that he

751
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:57,479
Speaker 16: had twenty five times the complication rate for a very

752
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 16: normal piece of surgery. Now, what more do you want

753
00:50:01,680 --> 00:50:04,840
Speaker 16: to protect the potential patients of Bunderberg Hospital?

754
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 19: A more detailed investigation of those cases.

755
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,680
Speaker 16: And in the meantime you let him continue to practice

756
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 16: and perform surgical procedures.

757
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,000
Speaker 19: I would always seek to try and protect the patient

758
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:18,800
Speaker 19: where possible.

759
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:23,480
Speaker 16: What you did was you protected doctor Patel rather than

760
00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 16: the patients.

761
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 19: Well, that was not the intent.

762
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:31,040
Speaker 16: See one possible view that I could form, doctor, and

763
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:33,600
Speaker 16: I'm not saying for a moment that I have formed

764
00:50:33,719 --> 00:50:37,759
Speaker 16: or that I am, is that you were deliberately concealing

765
00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:41,920
Speaker 16: this unfavorable data in the hope that because doctor Patel

766
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 16: was likely to leave reasonably soon, it would all go away.

767
00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 19: Well, that was not my consideration at the time.

768
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:55,640
Speaker 2: Away from operating theaters and wards. In this adversarial courtroom,

769
00:50:55,680 --> 00:51:00,279
Speaker 2: where a misstatement might be seen as deliberately misleading, the

770
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 2: doctors were no match for the lawyers. The clinical dissection

771
00:51:05,040 --> 00:51:10,120
Speaker 2: continued day after day, disposing of the foolhardy, the true believers,

772
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:13,680
Speaker 2: the yes men. It was a warmer for what should

773
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:17,960
Speaker 2: have been the climax the appearance of Bunderberg Hospital's managers,

774
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 2: Peter Leck and doctor Darren Keating. But by the time

775
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:24,759
Speaker 2: they arrived, so much blood had been spilled that it

776
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 2: was possible to feel sorry for them. Keating must have

777
00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:33,759
Speaker 2: felt betrayed and foolish for defending Patel, who deceived him.

778
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:39,320
Speaker 2: Along with almost everyone else, Keating had become a laughing stock. Worse,

779
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:44,440
Speaker 2: he faced prosecution. His best strategy at the inquiry was

780
00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:47,160
Speaker 2: to stick to the one he had adopted all along,

781
00:51:47,640 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 2: and maintained that Patel was not too bad. The surgeon,

782
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,959
Speaker 2: safely back in the United States, had tried to call

783
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,600
Speaker 2: Keating at one stage, but hung up before making contact

784
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:05,160
Speaker 2: Richard Douglas, one of the inquiry's senior lawyers, urged Darren

785
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:11,480
Speaker 2: Keating to consider more than one proposition very carefully, I

786
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 2: suggest to you Douglas would begin, and we knew the

787
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:20,120
Speaker 2: question would require the outflanked witness to agree or disagree

788
00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:24,120
Speaker 2: that his conduct amounted to a gross dereliction of duty.

789
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:30,320
Speaker 2: The questions were like sharp blades. Another severed head plopped

790
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:34,799
Speaker 2: into the basket. Jerry Mullins, the lawyer for the patients,

791
00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:38,920
Speaker 2: and John Allen, the lawyer for the nurses, mopped up.

792
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 13: When you look back, now, do you agree there was

793
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:45,040
Speaker 13: a raging fire of doctor Patel's incompetence.

794
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 12: Keating responded, I don't believe so. I could not see

795
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:54,080
Speaker 12: a major trend, taking into account the number of complications

796
00:52:54,080 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 12: and concerns in each of these different areas.

797
00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:01,480
Speaker 2: Jerry Mullins and John Allen had stayed on a true

798
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,439
Speaker 2: and steady course for the truth throughout the public hearings.

799
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 2: They put to Keating that he was lying for saying

800
00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:12,239
Speaker 2: that he would have permitted Patel to operate on him

801
00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 2: at any time at the hospital.

802
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 1: It is honest, Keating insisted, but Alan.

803
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:20,480
Speaker 13: Barked, it's not the truth.

804
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:24,400
Speaker 2: What would it take for someone in a position of

805
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:28,760
Speaker 2: responsibility to own up and admit fault and say, look,

806
00:53:28,800 --> 00:53:31,640
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I am partly responsible for all of this,

807
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:36,160
Speaker 2: and I deserve censure. But there was little contrition in

808
00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 2: court thirty four. Nobody did anything wrong, apparently having destroyed

809
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:46,240
Speaker 2: the first inquiry a move that backfired, and then failing

810
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:50,240
Speaker 2: with a legal argument that his fragile psychiatric condition should

811
00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:53,960
Speaker 2: preclude him from giving any evidence at the second inquiry,

812
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:58,680
Speaker 2: Peter Leck and his lawyers had a small win. Orders

813
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:02,440
Speaker 2: to shield him from the media throng were made, but

814
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:07,800
Speaker 2: Jeff Davies needed Lek's sworn testimony. At this late stage,

815
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 2: and with just a few days until the curtain fell,

816
00:54:11,480 --> 00:54:14,880
Speaker 2: blind Freddy could piece together most of what had gone

817
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:20,560
Speaker 2: wrong in Bunderberg. Davies, however, could not make findings against

818
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:24,360
Speaker 2: individuals until they had been given an opportunity to state

819
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:29,200
Speaker 2: their cases and respond to questions. Peter Lek was afforded

820
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:33,440
Speaker 2: every courtesy by his inquisitors, none of whom wanted to

821
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:38,040
Speaker 2: cause him further mental distress. When Davies asked if it

822
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:39,240
Speaker 2: occurred to Lek.

823
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 16: At any stage to consider suspending Dr Patel from surgery.

824
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 2: The humiliated hospital boss said that he relied on doctor

825
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:56,399
Speaker 2: Keating's opinion. At the lunch break, Beryl Crosby and her

826
00:54:56,480 --> 00:55:01,239
Speaker 2: friends in the patients support group Test bramag Hooper and

827
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:04,640
Speaker 2: Doris Hillier rushed to the other end of George Street

828
00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:09,760
Speaker 2: to Parliament House to hear the vanquished Inquiry Chief Tony Morris,

829
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:13,759
Speaker 2: deliver a speech. He called it the Black Death in

830
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:20,480
Speaker 2: Queensland Health. Morris, in robust form despite his judicial trouncing,

831
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:24,799
Speaker 2: credited Justice Martin moynihan for turning a.

832
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:28,280
Speaker 7: Lawyer, a member of the most distrusted and reviled profession

833
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:31,920
Speaker 7: in our community, into a popular and even heroic figure.

834
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:36,560
Speaker 2: Earlier, Tony Morris had borrowed a quote from his wife

835
00:55:36,640 --> 00:55:37,880
Speaker 2: when he quipped.

836
00:55:37,480 --> 00:55:41,440
Speaker 7: To me, as Alice likes to say, we're bitter but

837
00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:42,200
Speaker 7: not twisted.

838
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,879
Speaker 2: Eighty kilometers away at Southport on the Gold Coast, other

839
00:55:50,960 --> 00:55:55,760
Speaker 2: pressing health issues were all too personal. My sister Rebecca

840
00:55:55,920 --> 00:56:02,360
Speaker 2: methodically distilled the latest information about our mother Diana's condition. Frustratingly,

841
00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:05,920
Speaker 2: the results from a biopsy of a tumor seven to

842
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 2: eight centimeters long were inconclusive. The endocrinologists suspected that it

843
00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:16,920
Speaker 2: was malignant, but the oncologists differed. However, it is my

844
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:19,839
Speaker 2: understanding that doctor Feather has some doubts as that whether

845
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,240
Speaker 2: there may be cancer in the lung which may explain

846
00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:27,280
Speaker 2: some of her respiratory problems. Rebecca wrote this to Mum's GP,

847
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 2: doctor Jim Abraham's.

848
00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 11: Whilst in hospital she lost about ten kilos. However, she

849
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,120
Speaker 11: has started to eat again and now has the strength

850
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:40,640
Speaker 11: to walk to the bathroom. Last week we're advised to

851
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:42,920
Speaker 11: get mum's affairs in order due to the status of

852
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:46,440
Speaker 11: her health. However, this week we have a different story altogether,

853
00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:48,920
Speaker 11: and we honestly don't know what is going on as

854
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:52,120
Speaker 11: the various medical teams and doctors don't communicate with each

855
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:55,720
Speaker 11: other or us.

856
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:06,640
Speaker 2: Sick to Death is written and presented by me Headley Thomas,

857
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:11,959
Speaker 2: the Australian's national Chief correspondent. Claire Harvey is The Australian's

858
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:17,520
Speaker 2: editorial director. Audio editing, production and music have been done

859
00:57:17,560 --> 00:57:22,880
Speaker 2: by Jasper Leik, with assistance from Leah Sammaglu and Neil Sutherland.

860
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 2: Our producer is Christin Amias. Production management by Stephanie Coombs,

861
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:34,480
Speaker 2: artwork by Sean Callenan. Thanks to Ryan Osland, Matthew Condon,

862
00:57:34,760 --> 00:57:41,440
Speaker 2: Karina Berger, Ellie Dudley, David Murray, Dominique McDermott, Zach Sculander,

863
00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 2: and all our family, friends and colleagues who helped in

864
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 2: this series and contributed voice acting and special thanks to

865
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:56,000
Speaker 2: Tony Hoffman and Rob Messinger. Subscribers to The Australian. Here

866
00:57:56,240 --> 00:58:01,280
Speaker 2: new episodes of Sick to Death first at to deathpodcast

867
00:58:01,440 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 2: dot com and on Apple Podcasts. You can get exclusive

868
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 2: access to photographs, videos, timelines and more at the website