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Speaker 1: My name is Headley Thomas. Sick to Death is based

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Speaker 1: on my book of the same name, and it's the

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Speaker 1: true story of doctor Jan Patel's lies and manipulation and

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Speaker 1: the herculean effort it took to finally stop him. We've

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Speaker 1: used voice actors throughout this series, and on occasion the

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Speaker 1: real people from the story have read their words for us.

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

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty five ready set go late April two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five, in the weeks before the start of the

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Speaker 1: inquiry's public hearings, statements and strategies were being hastily drafted

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Speaker 1: in the husband officers and boardrooms of dozens of solicitors

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Speaker 1: and barristers. Weaknesses, strengths, points of law and proposed tactics

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Speaker 1: needed careful analysis. The lawyers, most of whom could look

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Speaker 1: forward to months of generous funding from the public purse

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Speaker 1: for their efforts, knew the greatest peril for a client

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Speaker 1: at a Commission of Inquiry was perjury. Lie. A finding

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Speaker 1: of negligence was far preferable to a referral to the

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Speaker 1: Director of Public Prosecutions for lying under oath. In a

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Speaker 1: much earlier Commission of Inquiry that I had covered led

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Speaker 1: by retired Supreme Court Justice Bill Carter QC into a

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Speaker 1: police car stealing racket in nineteen ninety two. Confident witnesses

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Speaker 1: were exposed as shameless liars during cross examination. Tony Hoffman

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Speaker 1: had no experience of courtrooms and clever legal questioning. Whenever

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Speaker 1: she called me to talk about how her formal statement

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Speaker 1: was going, I implored her to leave nothing out. She

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Speaker 1: was still concerned that her contact with me would be

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Speaker 1: used against her. I told her, if they ask you

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Speaker 1: in the inquiry about our contact, you have to tell

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Speaker 1: them the truth, tell them everything. Tony had heard that

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Speaker 1: doctor Jim Gaffield, the American plastic surgeon, was still supporting

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Speaker 1: Jayon Patel, defending his surgery and refusing to accept the

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Speaker 1: problems with the patients. I asked her, only half jokingly,

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Speaker 1: if she thought the inquiry would exonerate Patel.

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Speaker 2: They can't. Even the chief health officer has talked about

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Speaker 2: his complication and in fiction rates.

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Speaker 1: The hospital's key managers, Darren Keating, Peter Leck and Linda

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Speaker 1: Mulligan were on indefinitely with full pay, and this meant

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Speaker 1: they had a distinct advantage over other witnesses. They had

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Speaker 1: the time to research and prepare documentation, a weigh their

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Speaker 1: options and finalize a detailed statement. Tony Hoffman told.

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Speaker 2: Me Linda Mulligan has been saying, I can't wait to

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Speaker 2: get into this inquiry and see the truth come out.

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Speaker 1: Lek, however, was not in a good way. He had

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Speaker 1: been fragile before the truth about Patel's past came out

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Speaker 1: in the Courier mail. As the revelations mounted in the

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Speaker 1: days afterwards, he became withdrawn and deeply depressed. When a

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Speaker 1: leading Brisbane psychiatrist, doctor Jeremy Butler, first saw him in May,

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Speaker 1: a fortnight before the inquiry started, Peter Leck was suffering

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Speaker 1: extreme anxiety and feelings of hopelessness. He told Butler. He

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Speaker 1: found it difficult to sleep. He was having trouble concentrating

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Speaker 1: and remembering events. He looked haggard. Hoffman was concerned that

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Speaker 1: the lawyers for Lek, Keating and Mulligan would unite to

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Speaker 1: target her and destroy her credibility. Her solicitor, Gavin Ribetzki,

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Speaker 1: shared her concerns. He had asked her to ease up

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Speaker 1: on the media interviews in Perth, on the other side

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Speaker 1: of Australia, her young niece scampered into the kitchen and

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Speaker 1: told Tony's sister in law, I just saw Auntie Tony

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Speaker 1: on TV with her puppies. The little girl was scolded,

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Speaker 1: don't chill Phibbs, said her mum, Leanne Hoffman, But the

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Speaker 1: child was right. The West Australian media was running hard

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Speaker 1: on the story. Tony's brother, Matthew, was in Hawaii with

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Speaker 1: his Australian Defense for Submarine crew when he spotted his

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Speaker 1: sister on the cover of the Bulletin magazine. Claire Forster,

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Speaker 1: one of the top producers of the ABC's Australian Story program,

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Speaker 1: had begun working on a documentary to depict the Bunderberg disaster.

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Speaker 1: Not to be outdone, the Nine Networks, Sixty Minutes invited

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Speaker 1: Hoffman to fly to Oregon with reporter Paul Barry and

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Speaker 1: a crew to confront Patel near his home. She wanted

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with the plan, so they asked instead

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Speaker 1: about any identifying features of Patel. Did he wear jewelry?

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Speaker 1: Paul Barry planned to hire a private investigator who would

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Speaker 1: need clues to track the surgeon. Apparently, his home address

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Speaker 1: and Swathi Indian appearance were not sufficient. Clues. Hoffmann remembered

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Speaker 1: his watch. It was a Rolex. Patel was no longer

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Speaker 1: answering the constantly ringing phone or opening the door at

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Speaker 1: the family home in Portland. There would be no more interviews.

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Speaker 1: A large sign reading please no media person, newspaper, radio

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Speaker 1: or television, do not knock please greeted visitors. Pateel's checkered

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Speaker 1: past in Oregon was now an open book, and there

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Speaker 1: was still a clamor for more information. In Jamnagar, India,

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Speaker 1: his former colleagues were shocked to learn about the wrongdoing

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Speaker 1: of one of the town's most famous and successful exports.

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Speaker 1: He had returned to Jamnagar, near the Pakistani border, many

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Speaker 1: times since emigrating to the United States in nineteen seventy seven.

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Speaker 1: On each visit, he brought news of his successful career.

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Speaker 1: Bettel was clearly prospering. None of his friends suspected he

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Speaker 1: had been in any trouble. Doctor Vikram Shah told an

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Speaker 1: Indian television outlet.

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Speaker 3: I was shocked to hear this news.

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Speaker 4: Doctor Jane Pittell used to study with us and was

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Speaker 4: a very bright student.

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Speaker 1: Patel's elderly mother, Maruda Laban, meant only to support her

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Speaker 1: favorite son. When she told the Express Indian newspaper.

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Speaker 5: I am proud that my family has fourteen doctors.

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Speaker 6: My children, grandchildren.

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Speaker 7: Nieces and nephews are all doctors, and Jiant is the

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Speaker 7: best of them all.

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Speaker 1: Tony Hoffman lightheartedly told me.

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Speaker 2: Quick find those other thirteen.

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Speaker 1: For Hoffman and most of the other Intensive care unit nurses,

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Speaker 1: the work at Bunderberg Base Hospital would not wait. She

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Speaker 1: was also under enormous stress, but received little help from

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Speaker 1: Queensland Health. Although a disaster counseling team had moved into

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Speaker 1: the hospital to look after the staff, the ICU nurses

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Speaker 1: who had borne the brunt of Patel's conduct were overlooked.

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Speaker 2: Now everyone at the hospital is saying we need help,

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Speaker 2: we need counseling.

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Speaker 1: Hoffman told me.

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Speaker 2: Where were they when we needed help.

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Speaker 1: Her father, Warick had advised her not to take any

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Speaker 1: leave while you're still working. You can see some of

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Speaker 1: the knives coming, he said. At the same time, Hoffman

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Speaker 1: was under pressure from Rob Messenger. They had not seen

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Speaker 1: each other since that fateful eighteen March meeting at his

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Speaker 1: electorate office. She feared that the parliamentarian had been pressed

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Speaker 1: by his masters to bring more political mileage from the tragedy.

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Speaker 2: He wants me to tell him it's okay to release

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Speaker 2: my name as the person who gave him the material,

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Speaker 2: and he's trying to make me say things about people

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Speaker 2: and inquiry who's a crony and who isn't? And I

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Speaker 2: don't know who is who, so I'm saying no way.

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Speaker 1: Hoffman had only a few regrets about going to Messenger.

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Speaker 1: The material she had handed to him included a special

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Speaker 1: identifying characteristic, a unique number, which was tagged with the

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Speaker 1: name of a patient upon admission to hospital. Due to

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Speaker 1: a misunderstanding, Rob Messenger had not removed the number when

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Speaker 1: he tabled the documents in state Parliament. The breach of

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Speaker 1: patient confidentiality upset Hoffman and unnecessarily exposed her to potential punishment.

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Speaker 2: I only gave those so he would have some documentary backup.

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Speaker 2: I didn't think or imagine that he would release them

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Speaker 2: with the R numbers. But it was a matter of

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Speaker 2: life and death. We were desperate. There were still procedures

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Speaker 2: taking place. There were more than sixteen complications after our

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Speaker 2: written complaint. What else could we do.

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Speaker 1: In the streets around Bunderberg, strangers stopped to shake her

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Speaker 1: hand or kiss her cheek, good on you, tony became

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Speaker 1: a familiar cry, but she could only shake her head.

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Speaker 1: After meeting Mita Cunningham, the Labor Party's member for Bunderberg.

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Speaker 1: When she mentioned to Cunningham the name of Queensland Health's chief,

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Speaker 1: there was a blank stare from the politician. Hoffmann told me.

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Speaker 2: She didn't even know who Steve Buckland is. She said,

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Speaker 2: who's he?

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Speaker 1: The local parliamentarian was happy to condemn Messenger for his disclosures,

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Speaker 1: but she had no idea who ran the massive government department.

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Speaker 1: In her time of need, Hoffman drew comfort from the

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Speaker 1: support of the other nurses. Even those critical of her

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Speaker 1: in the beginning realized how she had been prepared to

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Speaker 1: sacrifice her job for the patients. At a meeting of

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Speaker 1: the nurses, Hoffman told.

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Speaker 2: Them, look, I've never been in this situation before.

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Speaker 8: Tell me what to do.

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Speaker 2: If you think we should be doing this or that,

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Speaker 2: please just tell me.

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Speaker 1: But they didn't know either. Everyone was in uncharted waters.

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Speaker 1: Patel's surviving patients and their loved ones remained gravely worried.

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Speaker 1: In a number of cases where wound sights were angry

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Speaker 1: or infected, they feared the worst blame for ongoing pain

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Speaker 1: after a PTEL procedure was directed to the missing surgeon

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Speaker 1: and Queensland Health. The patient advocate, Beryl Crosby, worked around

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Speaker 1: the clock, reassuring people who clung to the Mushrooming support

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Speaker 1: group and pushing Queensland Health to organize rapid appointments with

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Speaker 1: specialists to assess the need for corrective surgery. A team

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Speaker 1: of nurses with experience in trauma counseling went to Bunderberg

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Speaker 1: to soothe patients suffering physically and psychologically. These patients shared

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Speaker 1: the anxiety of Mary Lee, whose stomach swelled with bile

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Speaker 1: after a Betel procedure.

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Speaker 9: Before I could enjoy things a little bit, but now

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Speaker 9: when I try later, I feel sad ANDed down.

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Speaker 10: There's no day or night that I feel good about myself.

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Speaker 1: She said. A quick fix was impossible. The hospital in

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Speaker 1: Borbon Street had been under intolerable strain before the PTEL crisis.

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Speaker 1: It would not cope with a sudden influx of former

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Speaker 1: patients seeking urgent help. Almost nine hundred petel patients received

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Speaker 1: a Dear Patient letter from Queensland Health to explain the

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Speaker 1: work of a team of liaison officers who had converged

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Speaker 1: on Bunderbirt Surgeons from the private sector were contracted to

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Speaker 1: see patients referred by a senior hospital doctor. The plan

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Speaker 1: involved corrective surgery in private hospitals. The option for care

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Speaker 1: outside the public hospital system was welcomed by Beryl Crosby,

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Speaker 1: who knew that the trust of many of the patients

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Speaker 1: and much of the community had been shattered.

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Speaker 5: I hope the people who have been involved in employing

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Speaker 5: this so called surgeon, and the hierarchy who have swept

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Speaker 5: these misconduct allegations under the carpet never sleep peacefully.

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Speaker 1: Wrote Sharon Egmles in a letter published by the Bunderberg Newsmail.

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Speaker 5: My father in law and my husband's uncle were victims

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Speaker 5: of this incompetence, and you have deprived our family of

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Speaker 5: so much, not to mention all the families you have

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Speaker 5: ripped to pieces.

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Speaker 1: I had been wondering how Jared and Lorraine Neville felt

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Speaker 1: about the revelations. Nothing would bring their daughter Elise back,

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Speaker 1: and it might comfort them to know her death was

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Speaker 1: a catalyst for change. The stories that I had written

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Speaker 1: about Elise back in July two thousand and four had

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Speaker 1: motivated Tony Hoffman to contact me for the first time

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Speaker 1: in my talks with Hoffman since the Google search, we

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Speaker 1: considered disclosing to Jared and Lorraine Neville the little known

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Speaker 1: but critical role Elise had played. I wanted to tell

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Speaker 1: them how she had been vital to the case and

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Speaker 1: the reforms that were sure to follow. Hoffman wanted to

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Speaker 1: disclose the truth too, but she decided it was too soon.

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Speaker 1: She remained fearful of retribution from Queensland Health. Although Jered

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Speaker 1: and Lorraine had no knowledge of the chain of events,

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Speaker 1: the still grieving couple dashed off a letter.

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Speaker 11: Lorraine wrote, if our concerns about Queensland Health's internal investigation

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Speaker 11: of our complaint had been taken seriously when first raised

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Speaker 11: in two thousand and two, and if those concerns had

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Speaker 11: been investigated and reported publicly, we think it is quite

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Speaker 11: possible that the culture of health complaints handling might well

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Speaker 11: have changed for the better. If so, the tragic events

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Speaker 11: at Bunderberg Hospital might not have occurred, or at least

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Speaker 11: been so widespread.

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Speaker 1: Susan Goldsmith, the senior investigative reporter for the Oregonian newspaper,

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Speaker 1: was determined to localize the Patel's story. She began making

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Speaker 1: calls and received a tip off that doctor Sally Elers,

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Speaker 1: a surgeon in the township of Centralia in Washington State,

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Speaker 1: about one hundred and forty kilometers north of Portland, had

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Speaker 1: blown the whistle on Patel a decade earlier when they

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Speaker 1: worked together for the Kaiser Permanente group. Sally had heard

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Speaker 1: nothing of the scandal in Queensland. The reporter, Susan Goldsmith

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Speaker 1: told her.

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Speaker 7: Just for Jay on petellin to Google, you'll see what

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Speaker 7: I mean. His Australia's Death.

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Speaker 1: Chapter fifty six maintained the rage. May two thousand and five,

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Speaker 1: an informant urged me to investigate the United States background

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Speaker 1: of one of Queensland health psychiatrists. I went to the

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Speaker 1: same website that had revealed Jay and Patel's past. It

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Speaker 1: took a few seconds for my computer to display the

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Speaker 1: results from the State of New York's Department of Health.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Keith Meuwer, a prominent Queensland psychiatrist, was struck off

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Speaker 1: in the United States in nineteen ninety five for having

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Speaker 1: sexual relations with two vulnerable patients. The State Board of

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Speaker 1: Medical Examiners in neighboring New Jersey had earlier cited doctor

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Speaker 1: Mewer for engaging in what it described as gross and

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Speaker 1: repeated malpractice which clearly placed two patients at emotional risk

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Speaker 1: and indeed caused The New Jersey Board revealed that he

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Speaker 1: had preyed on the vulnerabilities of the patients and corrupted

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Speaker 1: the therapeutic relationship by engaging in sexual relations for his

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Speaker 1: own gratification while continuing to treat and prescribe antidepressants to

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Speaker 1: the women. The board found that he had utterly failed

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Speaker 1: to maintain an appropriate patient record, and he clearly knew

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Speaker 1: or should have known, of the patient's vulnerabilities and the

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Speaker 1: likelihood that transference of the patient's feelings onto the therapist

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Speaker 1: could occur. In Australia, doctor Muir had headed the mental

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Speaker 1: health unit at Cannes Base Hospital for a decade and

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Speaker 1: he was acting Deputy director at Nambur General Hospital. When

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Speaker 1: I called him, he told me he was the innocent

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Speaker 1: victim of a gross injustice. When the proceedings against him

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Speaker 1: were underway in the United States, he had left to

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Speaker 1: work in Queensland. He said to me that he was shocked,

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Speaker 1: but not entirely surprised, and he added, it's like a

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Speaker 1: bad dream that doesn't end but comes back to haunt you.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Muir accused the two women complainants of being in

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Speaker 1: cahoots with each other and best friends, despite them having

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Speaker 1: been accepted by US health investigators as highly credible. Unsurprisingly,

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Speaker 1: the Medical Board of Queensland had been unaware of doctor

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Speaker 1: Muir's background until the Patel case erupted. Had the Board

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Speaker 1: known of the proceedings, doctor Muir might not have been

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Speaker 1: registered in Queensland. My interviews with staff in Cans disclosed

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Speaker 1: that doctor Muir's conduct had troubled psychiatric nurses and patients

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Speaker 1: for years. Another psychiatrist, Annette Johansson, had formerly complained to

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Speaker 1: the Queensland Health Rights Commission about doctor Muir in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety five. The same year, New York State authority revoked

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Speaker 1: his license to practice after an investigation which somehow took

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Speaker 1: four years to complete. The Health Rights Commission had decided

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Speaker 1: that doctor Muir was unfairly accused of sexual harassment. Its

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Speaker 1: investigators did not bother checking his United States background. My

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Speaker 1: articles about doctor Muir drew a hostile letter from the

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Speaker 1: Commission's head, David Kerslake.

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Speaker 12: For the record, it is not, nor has it ever been,

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Speaker 12: the Health Rights Commission's rolled or responsibility to check the

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Speaker 12: validity of a health practitioner's registration, or whether a practitioner

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Speaker 12: has been subject to discipline reaction in any other jurisdiction.

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Speaker 1: It struck me as classic bureaucratic buck passing. Whatever happened

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Speaker 1: to initiative to thinking outside the square. Here was a

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Speaker 1: case in which an investigative agency conducted an unbelievably prolonged

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Speaker 1: inquirer into the goings on in a public hospital mental

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Speaker 1: health unit headed by a psychiatrist who was also accused

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Speaker 1: of sexual harassment of a colleague and met Johansson. Just

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Speaker 1: a cursory check to see if doctor Muir had a

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Speaker 1: clean slate in his previous job would have been easy

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Speaker 1: and conclusive.

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Speaker 12: That is the sole preserve of registration boards, which is

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Speaker 12: no doubt why they are so named.

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Speaker 1: His absurd statement proved how utterly hopeless the various agencies

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Speaker 1: were in uncovering basic facts, let alone fulfilling their statutory duties.

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Speaker 1: The public responses to the Courier Mail after the revelations

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Speaker 1: over the doctor Muir bungle were mostly angry. One of

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Speaker 1: doctor Mwer's patients, however, wrote about her life being positively

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Speaker 1: transformed by the man and a former colleague attacked what

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Speaker 1: he called the public crucifixion of doctor Muir. At a

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Speaker 1: media conference, Peter Beatty, who was still furious with the

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Speaker 1: Medical Board for failing to check Petel's background, became angrier

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Speaker 1: when asked about my reports on doctor Muir.

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Speaker 4: I've got to the stage where I'm sick to death

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Speaker 4: of these allegations, and let me tell you, as Premier,

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Speaker 4: I've got to the stage with this where I'm looking

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Speaker 4: forward to this Royal Commission getting to the bottom of

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Speaker 4: how all these systems operate and coming up with some

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Speaker 4: very clear medicine to fix it. I hope Tony Morris

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Speaker 4: takes a scalpel to the whole process.

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Speaker 1: The next day, Tony Morris drove his car to the

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Speaker 1: Gold Coast Hospital, eighty kilometers south of his George Street office,

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Speaker 1: to deliver personally a summons for all documents related to

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Speaker 1: the treatment by district management of doctors and specialists. He

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Speaker 1: had been alerted to problems there in a letter received

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Speaker 1: from the Premier, Peter Beatty. The top level attention was

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Speaker 1: a coup for the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper, which had

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Speaker 1: been campaigning on local health problems. Morris held an urgent

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Speaker 1: meeting with hospital management and handed over the summons, which

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Speaker 1: would have cost the public purse about thirty dollars for

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Speaker 1: a functionary to deliver. The story improved when on the

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Speaker 1: way out he and the Bulletins reporter Anne Wass and

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00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:25,359
Speaker 1: Moore were told by security staff to leave the premises.

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Speaker 1: Morris had truly entered the arena with his unusual decision

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Speaker 1: to drive from Brisbane to the Gold Coast Hospital and

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00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:39,480
Speaker 1: once there personally handled the issue. In all other public inquiries,

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Speaker 1: the investigative team members were assigned to do jobs like these,

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Speaker 1: while the inquiry commissioner stayed above it all like a

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Speaker 1: judge overseeing the actions. He was going to extravagant lengths

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Speaker 1: to promote the inquiry and demonstrate his zeal. His actions

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Speaker 1: afforded an early glimpse of his willingness to step across

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Speaker 1: a line. Morris had no intention of sticking to an

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Speaker 1: orthodox and conservative script. Queensland Health staff, already severely rattled,

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00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:17,040
Speaker 1: were apoplectic. A few days later, Tony Morris ordered doctor

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Speaker 1: Steve Buckland, Queensland Health's Director General, to hand over a

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Speaker 1: report arising from a clinical review by two orthopedic surgeons,

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Speaker 1: Doctor Peter Giblin and doctor John North. They had investigated

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Speaker 1: orthopedic services at Harvey Bay Hospital. After my November two

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Speaker 1: thousand and three stories on the two Fiji trained doctors,

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Speaker 1: Morris had received a tip off that Queensland Health was

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Speaker 1: trying to smother the scathing findings. After perusing the document,

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00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 1: Morris promptly released it to all media outlets and put

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Speaker 1: it on the inquiry's website. In his accompanying thirteen page ruling,

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Speaker 1: he disclosed that although the inquiry was still at an

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Speaker 1: investigative stage.

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Speaker 8: It has received a great deal of information suggesting that

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Speaker 8: there is a culture of bullying within Queensland Health.

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Speaker 1: He referred to a practice of burying adverse reports and

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Speaker 1: of making life difficult for anyone in the public health

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Speaker 1: system who was seen to make complaints or criticisms of

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Speaker 1: Queensland Health. Tony Morris wrote.

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Speaker 8: All other considerations aside, it seems to me that the

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Speaker 8: public of Queensland, and especially people who live in the

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Speaker 8: Fraser Coast region, are entitled to know that, in the

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Speaker 8: opinion of two eminent orthopedic surgeons specifically appointed by Queensland

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Speaker 8: Health to review the situation, patient safety is at severe risk.

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Speaker 8: Public inquiries like this one, which are conducted at the

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Speaker 8: public expense in relation to issues of public interest and concern, should,

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Speaker 8: in the absence of the strongest reasons to the contrary,

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Speaker 8: be conducted in the full blaze of public scrutiny. Proceedings

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Speaker 8: conducted behind closed doors with secret exhibits and anonymous witnesses

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Speaker 8: are characteristic of organizations like the Star Chamber, the Spanish Inquisition,

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Speaker 8: the Gestapo, and the KGB, found in totalitarian dictatorships rather

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Speaker 8: than the institutions of a democratic society.

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Speaker 1: Morris had initially planned to restrict television cameras from the

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Speaker 1: inquiry's hearing room, but he began to reconsider after hearing

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Speaker 1: from the Nine Networks Political editor Spencer Jolly. Morris consulted

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00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 1: Jolly's competitor, the Seven Networks, Patrick Condron, who added his

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00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: enthusiastic ascent. Marris told Condron.

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Speaker 8: As you know, this is virtually unprecedented in Australia, but

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Speaker 8: I can't really see any objection in principle, and there

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00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,480
Speaker 8: are some obvious advantages if people are given an opportunity

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Speaker 8: to see and hear what goes on at the inquiry.

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00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,199
Speaker 8: I am optimistic that this will increase their confidence in

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Speaker 8: the Commission's independence from the government, including Queensland Health.

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Speaker 1: It seemed that viewers were going to witness a televised

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Speaker 1: real life hospital drama beamed into their living rooms. The

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00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: TV network salivated it would be great for ratings. Meanwhile,

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00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: the Patel story was widening every day. Public and political

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00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 1: outrage followed the revelations of Queensland Health spending more than

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Speaker 1: three thousand dollars on a one way business class fare

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Speaker 1: for Patel to leave the country. In early April, the

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Speaker 1: number of deaths being formally investigated topped eighty because vascular

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Speaker 1: surgeon doctor Peter Woodruff and the Queensland Health Review Team

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Speaker 1: had instructions to examine the circumstances of every deceased patient

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Speaker 1: who had any contact with Patel, no matter how limited.

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00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: Chief Health Officer, Doctor Jerry Fitzgerald, who remained and in

379
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 1: contact with the family, still believed that many of the

380
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Speaker 1: seriously ill patients would have died anyway. He suspected that

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Speaker 1: Patel's intervention had hastened their demise and worsened their quality

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00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: of life before the end.

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Speaker 13: And he told me this, But until somebody crawls through

384
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,679
Speaker 13: all these patients' files, and determines if they would have

385
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 13: died or not. It's pretty hard to say anything definitive

386
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 13: about it.

387
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: Well placed informants emerged from obscurity every day to provide

388
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 1: news tips about outrageous in the health system. Pressure was building.

389
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: The Courier Mail's editor, David Fagan insured generous space for

390
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Speaker 1: the ongoing story. He was calling in the newspaper's editorials

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Speaker 1: for the resignations of Health Minister Gordon Nuttle and his

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Speaker 1: Director General, doctor Steve Buckland. Astute observers of power and

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Speaker 1: politics insiders such as the bad government's top media strategists,

394
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: knew it would only worsen when the inquiry's public hearing started,

395
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,160
Speaker 1: As one of those advisors.

396
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Speaker 9: Told me, three fundamental things hurt governments health, crime and education.

397
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 9: Health moves votes. This has the potential to be incredibly destructive.

398
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,399
Speaker 9: The problem here is the direct connection between government in

399
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 9: action and dead people. One of Peter Beatty's great capacities

400
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 9: is his ability to stand up and say we fucked it,

401
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 9: we fixed it, now move on. But in this there

402
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:33,680
Speaker 9: are all sorts of horror stories coming out.

403
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: Nuttle's bureaucrats saw Morris as an unstoppable wrecking Ball, who

404
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: threatened everything they seized over his powerful mandate to discover

405
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,960
Speaker 1: the truth. They would have preferred to limit damage from

406
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: his inquiry by severely restricting certain information, such as the

407
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: Harvey Bay Review. The relentless lawyer, however, held all the

408
00:27:56,119 --> 00:28:00,159
Speaker 1: cards he had, Peter Beatty's ear and the authority to

409
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: take a scalpel, as he called it, to the whole process.

410
00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 1: Marris underlined his resolve in a nineteen May statement which foreshadowed.

411
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 8: Possibly sweeping changes in the administration of Queensland Health. He

412
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 8: spoke of claims of concealment of bad news, obfuscation of

413
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 8: the truth, use of creative or falsified statistics, and use

414
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 8: of spin to distract attention from adverse media reports. The doctors,

415
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 8: nurses and allied health staff, who had known this for years, cheered.

416
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 8: Tony Hoffman wrote to my editor to thank his journalists

417
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 8: and the public for their support.

418
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 2: She said, I had previously no contact with the media,

419
00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 2: and prior to my dealings with the career Mail, I

420
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: also was a skeptic. Please continue to help keep us

421
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:58,000
Speaker 2: honest by reporting the truth and exposing the falsehoods. In

422
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 2: a democratic state, this is what we should expect and

423
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 2: accept nothing less. There is some very important work to

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00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 2: be done in the coming weeks to ensure that what

425
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 2: happened at Bunderberg never happens again.

426
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:18,479
Speaker 1: Hoffman and her colleagues saw in Morris a fearless lawyer

427
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:23,040
Speaker 1: wielding a new broom. He talked their language. He was

428
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: rapidly winning public support. But old hands, like some of

429
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: the retired Supreme Court judges, regarded Morris as a show pony,

430
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,840
Speaker 1: obsessed with image, and they tipped that the inquiry would fail.

431
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: One judge told Nuttle, there will be a few more

432
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: body bags before it's over. Chapter fifty seven Fastened seat

433
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: belts twenty three to twenty five. May two thousand and five,

434
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 1: A shrill whine in the elevator shaft of the Beatty

435
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: Government's newest monument to law and order, the Magistrate's Court

436
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 1: Building on George Street, echoed around Court thirty four A

437
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: man marched in the lobby outside wearing a hand painted

438
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: shirt that read I am a medical blunder victim. In

439
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 1: the minutes before the advertised starting time of ten am, lawyers, journalists, onlookers,

440
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: and inquiry staff exchanged nervous glances. Folders of statements were

441
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: passed across the wide tables reserved for the barristers and solicitors.

442
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: Trolleys laden with legal documents were pushed back and forth.

443
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: Ralph Devlyn, looking jaunty in an expensive suit and trademark

444
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: bow tie at my gaze, A tenacious lawyer with much

445
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: experience in commissions of inquiry. He was appearing for the

446
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 1: Medical Board. I half joked that he had been handed

447
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: a poisoned chalice. Not at all, he said, confidently, we

448
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: are only here to help. We awaited the entrance of

449
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: Tony Morris and his deputies Sir Lew Edwards and Margaret

450
00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: Vider for Day one of the Bunderberg Base Hospital Commission

451
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 1: of Inquiry. After the inquiry's Secretary, David Groth, had read

452
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: aloud the terms of reference, a succession of lawyers sought

453
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: from Morris his permission to appear on behalf of their

454
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: respective clients. For the patients, there were Jerry Mullins and

455
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: Justin Harper for Queensland Health, David Badisee, sc Brad Farr

456
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:47,160
Speaker 1: and Chris Fitzpatrick for the Australian Medical Association of Queensland.

457
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: David Tate for the Queensland Nurses Union, John Allen for

458
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 1: the Medical Board, Ralph Devlyn for doctor Darren Keating, Jeff

459
00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: Deam for Peter Leck, Ron Ashton for the Health Rights Commission,

460
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 1: Ross Perrot for senior clinicians, Raylene Kelly. Tony Morris made

461
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: notes during.

462
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 8: The role call of lawyers and I don't know, I

463
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 8: suppose whether doctor Patel wishes to be present or heard?

464
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: He asked. The room chuckled as the tension eased. David Andrews,

465
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: the senior counsel who was appointed to assist Tony Morris,

466
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: had a dry reply.

467
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 14: I haven't heard that doctor Patel wishes to be heard.

468
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 1: Morris and his staff had been overwhelmed by letters and

469
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,000
Speaker 1: calls from Queenslanders who wanted the inquiry to investigate the

470
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: allegedly negligent care they all loved ones had received in hospitals.

471
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 1: The length and breadth of the state, Morris wanted to

472
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 1: nip in the bud any notion that such investigations would

473
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: be feasible.

474
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 8: It would be impossible for this inquiry to examine everyone

475
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 8: who feels that they have a grudge or a complaint

476
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 8: or a dissatisfaction with medical treatment received by themselves or

477
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,720
Speaker 8: by family members. Somewhere in Queensland. What we want to

478
00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 8: see as a short, sharp, lean investigation that gets to

479
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 8: the facts, comes up with appropriate recommendations and puts in

480
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,280
Speaker 8: place systems and structures that ensure that the problems of

481
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 8: the past don't happen again. Most importantly, we want to

482
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 8: look to the future.

483
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: He summarized some of the areas he had begun to

484
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: consider for reform, areas such as protection for whistleblowers, the

485
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: complaints handling systems in the public health sector, the recruitment

486
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 1: and retention of medical staff, the burgeoning bureaucracy. He ended

487
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: the opening speech with an anecdote related to him by

488
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: a leading Queensland surgeon who had done his postgraduate training

489
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: in Scotland.

490
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,479
Speaker 8: He mentioned that he has a registrar who's of Asian

491
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 8: origin and in fact a second or third generation Australian,

492
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 8: and a patient recently said to this surgeon, well I

493
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,279
Speaker 8: don't want that foreign trained doctor coming near me, And

494
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 8: the surgeon said, well, I'm the foreign trained doctor. I

495
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 8: was trained in Edinburgh. So if you don't want a

496
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 8: foreign trained doctor operating on you, you'd better have the registrar

497
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 8: who was trained exclusively in Australia.

498
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 1: Maris wanted to quell the community tensions and racism that

499
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: had arisen since the Betel revelations. For a number of

500
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,520
Speaker 1: overseas trained doctors, the taunts had been too much to bear.

501
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 8: Some of them have different colored skin, some of them

502
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,879
Speaker 8: come from what might be regarded as non traditional backgrounds

503
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 8: for the medical practice in this state, but they are

504
00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:46,920
Speaker 8: still extremely talented doctors.

505
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: A short time later, David Andrews, whose key role involved

506
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 1: planning inquiry strategies and questioning the main witnesses, got down

507
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 1: to business commiss I call Tony Hoffman. She walked tentatively

508
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 1: to the table for witnesses below and to the right

509
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,799
Speaker 1: of the bench where Morris and the deputies sat. The

510
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:17,400
Speaker 1: cameras clicked and flashed. Hoffman started nervously responding to questions

511
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 1: about her experience and training over the years as an

512
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:25,520
Speaker 1: intensive care unit nurse in London, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

513
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:30,320
Speaker 1: She raised her master's degree in bioethics and her tertiary

514
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: qualifications in management. For most of the day and the

515
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 1: next one, Hoffman recalled two years of agony at the hospital.

516
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:44,520
Speaker 1: At times she was tearful, describing the dysfunction of hospital management,

517
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: the injuries and deaths of patients, and the fears of

518
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: reprisals against staff who complained.

519
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 2: All the nurses and intensive care were seeing all these

520
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 2: patients die and we could not do anything. We just thought,

521
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 2: what on earth can we do to stop this man.

522
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 2: We took to hiding patients and telling them they should

523
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 2: ask to be sent to Brisbane. We were telling them

524
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 2: things we shouldn't be saying.

525
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: Hoffman painted an ugly picture of Patel's competence, Her sincerity

526
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 1: and courage clearly made a strong impression on Morris. At

527
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: four point fifty five pm on day two, after adjourning

528
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: for the day and telling Hoffman that she would next

529
00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:31,400
Speaker 1: be needed to give evidence at the Bunderberg sittings in June,

530
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: the head of the inquiry, Tony Morris, stepped down from

531
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 1: the bench to approach her. He extended an arm and

532
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 1: he shook Hoffman's hand. She was chaffed, but the lawyers

533
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:48,120
Speaker 1: who witnessed it were a gog. They apprehended a bias,

534
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: a predetermined view. Nobody had heard of a judge or

535
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:57,359
Speaker 1: an inquiry commissioner approaching a witness during the actual proceedings

536
00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:01,240
Speaker 1: in this way. Like the rest of the community, Morris

537
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 1: regarded Hoffman as a heroine. Accordingly, had he already decided

538
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,960
Speaker 1: that those who opposed her were villains. Morris had just

539
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:19,399
Speaker 1: sown the first seed for his inquiri's failure. Chapter fifty eight,

540
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 1: Human Headlines twenty six May to three June two thousand

541
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:31,120
Speaker 1: and five. The drama unfolding in court thirty four transfixed

542
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,800
Speaker 1: political junkies and everyday folk who saw a tragedy undergoing

543
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 1: forensic scrutiny. Although Tony Morris QC was making few friends

544
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:44,920
Speaker 1: in the top layers of Queensland Health, his robust style

545
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 1: i plaudits in the community. Each morning, listeners to Steve

546
00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:54,120
Speaker 1: Austin's ABC Radio six twelve program in Queensland heard extended

547
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:58,719
Speaker 1: extracts from the proceedings. They heard clinicians such as Dr

548
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 1: Peter Meak, Hospital's renal specialist and director of Medicine, who

549
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:06,800
Speaker 1: had stood up to Jan Patel. He spoke of efforts

550
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:08,760
Speaker 1: to sideline the director of surgery.

551
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,879
Speaker 15: The advice I provided to everyone around me, I sort

552
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 15: of said, don't go anywhere near this chap. Absolutely not.

553
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 15: I mean I told everybody I insulated patients. I did

554
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,960
Speaker 15: my own audit. I submitted to the appropriate channels that

555
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 15: were issues. There were problems there, they were identified. I

556
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 15: stopped using him. I told everybody not to go near him.

557
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,880
Speaker 1: He recalled a conversation with doctor Darren Keating in the

558
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:38,280
Speaker 1: days after Patel's true past had been revealed.

559
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 15: It was interesting. It was a strange meeting. I was

560
00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,640
Speaker 15: in the renal unit, which has stuck to the medical ward,

561
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:48,879
Speaker 15: doing some procedures or talking or looking at patients. In fact,

562
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:51,360
Speaker 15: he came up one afternoon to that area up in

563
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:54,880
Speaker 15: the ward, which was somewhat unusual because as I mentioned before,

564
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 15: he was rarely seen on the ward. And he sought

565
00:38:57,520 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 15: me out and we sat in my little office. We

566
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:03,280
Speaker 15: just started talking in general terms about the Patel issue.

567
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 15: And I wasn't quite sure what was going on. What

568
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 15: was the discussion about where it was heading all the

569
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:11,760
Speaker 15: rest of it. But anyway, I talked, you know, about

570
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 15: how unfortunate it is that patients have been hurt, and

571
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 15: the rest of it. I'm not quite sure what he wanted,

572
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 15: but part of it. At the end, in fact, he

573
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 15: made a comment which I regarded as a veiled threat.

574
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 15: He sort of said, you have to understand what goes around,

575
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 15: comes around. I was a bit lost for words, and

576
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:35,719
Speaker 15: I said, Darren, you and I see things very, very differently,

577
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 15: and that was it.

578
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:42,360
Speaker 1: Doctor Miak spoke of another conversation in which doctor Keating

579
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:47,600
Speaker 1: described the hospital as a business. They were indeed polls apart.

580
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:50,359
Speaker 1: Margaret Weider asked.

581
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 7: I would have thought it was the business of a

582
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,839
Speaker 7: hospital to be looking after the sick. What would your

583
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 7: interpretation then be of what is the business of the

584
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 7: Bunderberg Base Hospital.

585
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 15: Doctor Miak replied, to make money to come in on budget.

586
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 15: That's my interpretation of it, quite simply. Patients are a

587
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:13,879
Speaker 15: secondary consideration and most physicians, most nurses, most people who

588
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 15: work in fact, would see it one hundred percent differently.

589
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 15: You can't run a hospital as a business, irrespective of

590
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:23,200
Speaker 15: what anybody tells you. In fact, the hospital is there

591
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 15: to serve a community. Patients don't come in with a

592
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:28,879
Speaker 15: sign on their forehead, you know, heart attack when they

593
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,480
Speaker 15: come in. In fact, they have hundreds of other things

594
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,359
Speaker 15: you have to tackle. So that's my interpretation of it.

595
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:36,120
Speaker 15: It has to do with money, which I think is

596
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 15: a pity. I think it's totally wrong.

597
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 1: Before doctor Miak had given his powerful evidence, about the

598
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:47,879
Speaker 1: gulf between clinicians and administrators and the abyss into which

599
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: patients could fall in a sick and fractured health system.

600
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 1: The inquiry's staff had planned for doctor Keating and Peter

601
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,480
Speaker 1: Lek to be called as witnesses in June, but immediately

602
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:04,080
Speaker 1: after the miak had finished, Tony Morris asked his senior lawyer,

603
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,920
Speaker 1: David Andrews, to join him and the two Deputy commissioners

604
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:12,799
Speaker 1: for a brief meeting. Jared Cowley Grimmond, a Crown law

605
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 1: officer secondered to the inquiry's staff to conduct investigations and

606
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,840
Speaker 1: interview witnesses, was handed a notice from Morris with instructions

607
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 1: to contact Peter Leck's solicitors and his barrister, Ron Ashton,

608
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 1: and asked that they be present in the hearing room

609
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:33,240
Speaker 1: before the lunch break. When Ron Ashton arrived about twelve

610
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:37,640
Speaker 1: thirty pm, Tony Morris asked the whereabouts of Peter Leck.

611
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:42,880
Speaker 1: Ron Ashton, who had little experience as a barrister after

612
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,879
Speaker 1: a long career as a solicitor, sounded taken aback. He

613
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:48,360
Speaker 1: told the inquiry.

614
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 14: Had well, he is in the city. I mean he

615
00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:52,880
Speaker 14: is in the city of Brisbane.

616
00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 8: Morris replied, well, will you convey to him that we

617
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 8: will want him present after the lunch break go into

618
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:01,240
Speaker 8: the witness box.

619
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:07,560
Speaker 1: Lex's solicitor, Patricia Feenie, a long time professional acquaintance of Ashton's,

620
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: was shocked at the lunch break. She asked David Andrews

621
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,400
Speaker 1: if he was able to explain why Lek was required

622
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,640
Speaker 1: to give evidence at such short notice. Andrew said that

623
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: he could not. Feene called Peter Lek on his mobile phone.

624
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: He had been in the city walking and he did

625
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 1: not have time to return home to change into a

626
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:34,840
Speaker 1: coat and tie. Although Ashton and Feenie could have strongly

627
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:38,319
Speaker 1: protested on the record that the position suddenly adopted by

628
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:43,600
Speaker 1: Morris was unfair, they remained silent. Lek was duly sworn

629
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:46,640
Speaker 1: and for most of the next one hundred minutes sat

630
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:51,560
Speaker 1: hunched at the witness table. He endured a scathing examination

631
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:55,920
Speaker 1: conducted almost solely by Morris, who did not know that

632
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:00,719
Speaker 1: Lek was being treated for a psychiatric condition. Watching from

633
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:04,840
Speaker 1: behind a glass petition, I winced at the severity of

634
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:09,120
Speaker 1: the interrogation. Leck looked like a whipped dog who wanted

635
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 1: to roll himself into a ball to make the smallest

636
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 1: possible target. His lawyers, who raised scant objection at the time,

637
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:22,080
Speaker 1: would later speak of him being lacerated. At times, Morris

638
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:23,439
Speaker 1: seemed incensed.

639
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 8: It doesn't worry you that patients might be dying or

640
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:30,760
Speaker 8: that fifteen year old boys might be losing their legs.

641
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 8: It's not your role to see where there might be

642
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 8: some truth in these allegations.

643
00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 9: It's the role of the director of medical Services in

644
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:38,880
Speaker 9: terms of clinical issues.

645
00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 16: I'm not a clinician.

646
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:43,360
Speaker 8: Did you talk to anyone who actually works in the

647
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 8: hospital seeing patients. Why doesn't someone get out of the

648
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 8: office occasionally and go down and say, Nurse Hoffman, we

649
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 8: hear you have a bit of a problem with doctor

650
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 8: Batel and that you're not talking to one another. Can

651
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:57,760
Speaker 8: we sort it out instead of all this nonsense about

652
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:02,040
Speaker 8: mediation and fixing meetings and scheduling things and going on

653
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 8: for months and months while patients are literally dying in

654
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:09,120
Speaker 8: the ICU. What have you done since you were first

655
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,680
Speaker 8: told about this problem in October to achieve anything to

656
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 8: save the lives of the patients who have been killed

657
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 8: by doctor Patel?

658
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 14: With respect, Commissioner, can I say, with the greatest respect

659
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:25,560
Speaker 14: rhetorical questions of that kind are unfair to the witness.

660
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:30,520
Speaker 1: Marris was only warming up. He told Leck that historically

661
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,839
Speaker 1: doctors ran hospitals and performed operations with a minimum of

662
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 1: what Tony Morris called pen pushes or bureaucrats. Near the end,

663
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 1: Ashton told Marris, may I hasten to say, respectfully, we

664
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: do not for a moment complain about certainly don't dissent

665
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 1: for a moment about your authority and power to require

666
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,680
Speaker 1: him to give evidence today, and we don't complain about

667
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 1: your decision to do so. But I simply respectfully asked

668
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,479
Speaker 1: that it be understood by all the disadvantage under which

669
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:12,720
Speaker 1: he labors in those circumstances. At four five pm, Darren Keating,

670
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,319
Speaker 1: who had taken a seat each day to follow the

671
00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:18,360
Speaker 1: inquiry evidence, heard for the first time that he would

672
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: be up next. Mars put to doctor Keating that if

673
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,839
Speaker 1: he had spent a bit more time in the operational

674
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:28,520
Speaker 1: parts of the hospital rather than in your office, he

675
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 1: might have discovered.

676
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 8: That nurses were hiding patients from doctor Patel so he

677
00:45:34,080 --> 00:45:37,799
Speaker 8: couldn't operate on them. Senior medical staff were recommending to

678
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,400
Speaker 8: patients that they seek transferred to Brisbane rather than go

679
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 8: under the knife of doctor Patel. What needs to be

680
00:45:44,920 --> 00:45:48,400
Speaker 8: done to ensure this sort of tragedy doesn't happen again.

681
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,560
Speaker 8: Relating to the people that died, the boy who had

682
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 8: his leg amputated, the woman who had her breast cancer

683
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 8: passed over by doctor Patel, all of these tragic circumstances

684
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:03,080
Speaker 8: that we've heard over the last four days. Would it

685
00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:06,200
Speaker 8: be a good start to have hospitals run by doctors

686
00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 8: who are real doctors, who see patients and know what

687
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 8: goes on from day to day in the operating theater

688
00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 8: and the ward rooms.

689
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 1: Keating did not buckle under the pressure. He gave a

690
00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: two word answer, he said, not necessarily. The replay of

691
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,920
Speaker 1: the evidence on the evening TV news further shredded the

692
00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 1: public reputations of the two men. Lek and Keating were humiliated,

693
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: their lawyers were livid. The previous day in state Parliament,

694
00:46:38,360 --> 00:46:41,440
Speaker 1: Peter Beatty and his team were taunted by the National

695
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: Party's hit man, Jeff Ceni, who carried a sign. It

696
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 1: read labor killing Queenslanders eighty seven. It was a reference

697
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:55,280
Speaker 1: to the number of patients who had died after contact

698
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:55,960
Speaker 1: with Patel.

699
00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 10: Sceenie explained, I've had to deal with a number of

700
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:04,319
Speaker 10: their families. I found that to be very distressing, and

701
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:06,640
Speaker 10: I didn't want to let the spin doctors carry the

702
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:07,520
Speaker 10: issue forward.

703
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 1: Over the weekend, there were rumors that Morris had dangerously

704
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:17,080
Speaker 1: exposed the inquiry to a potential Supreme Court legal challenge

705
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 1: by Lek and Keeping for apprehended bias. Even some of

706
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:24,760
Speaker 1: the staff of the inquiry were concerned that if Morris

707
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: overplayed his hand, the inquiry would be shut down. Damien Atkinson,

708
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:34,600
Speaker 1: one of the two junior counsel assisting Morris, had little

709
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 1: sympathy for Lek or for Keating, but he was anxious

710
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:41,280
Speaker 1: for the inquiry to reach findings after a fair fight

711
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:45,600
Speaker 1: in the court of public opinion and amongst the patients

712
00:47:45,680 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 1: and their loved ones. However, Morris was cheered. People saw

713
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 1: him illuminating matters of life and death in a system

714
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,440
Speaker 1: which relied on secrecy and distortion of the truth to

715
00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 1: hide mistakes and negligence. Pain and embarrassment of a couple

716
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,239
Speaker 1: of bureaucrats paled into insignificance compared with the carnage at

717
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:10,279
Speaker 1: the hospital and the grief and loss of relatives. As

718
00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:14,200
Speaker 1: my friend and veteran newspaper reporter Peter Cameron told me

719
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,960
Speaker 1: on the way down George Street nobody ever made a

720
00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:22,479
Speaker 1: great omelet without cracking a few eggs. But Morris had

721
00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:27,239
Speaker 1: sown two further seeds for the inquiry's failure. By the

722
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: end of the following week, ron Ashton had adopted a

723
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 1: new approach. He sought to reverse his acquiescence over the

724
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:38,839
Speaker 1: handling of his client Peter Leck by Morris on day four.

725
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: If Leck should decide at some point to attempt to

726
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,319
Speaker 1: shut down the inquiry four apprehended buyers, his lawyers would

727
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,040
Speaker 1: have a difficult time explaining to the Supreme Court why

728
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 1: they had been happy to go along with Morris at first. Accordingly,

729
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:59,360
Speaker 1: ron Ashton rowed into day nine on a different boat

730
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:03,759
Speaker 1: and described the process of calling and questioning Lek.

731
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:09,640
Speaker 14: Unfair, unnecessary, unexplained, and in the context of the treatment

732
00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:14,000
Speaker 14: of witnesses in the commission so far, essentially unique to

733
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 14: our client.

734
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:19,799
Speaker 1: It was a pointer to the potential for a future challenge.

735
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:22,919
Speaker 1: But the evidence of most interest to me on day

736
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 1: nine came from doctor Dennis Lennox, the author of the

737
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 1: Queensland Health Report on overseas trained doctors. This report had

738
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 1: been leaked to me in late two thousand and three.

739
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: Lennox had suffered because of the leak. He was not

740
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:41,360
Speaker 1: even the leaker. He told Morris of the bureaucracy's bullying

741
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:46,320
Speaker 1: secrecy practice of suppressing reports and shoot the messenger culture.

742
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:50,480
Speaker 1: He also rejected the spin pedaled back in November two

743
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 1: thousand and three by Health Minister Wendy Edmund and her

744
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:57,799
Speaker 1: new chief doctor Steve Buckland about the report being a

745
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:02,880
Speaker 1: draft with no official state. He lamented a health system

746
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:07,840
Speaker 1: which lacked transparency and sold out its staff. After Dennis

747
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 1: Lennox ended his testimony, it became apparent that my proposed

748
00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:14,880
Speaker 1: evidence was being rejected by one of the key parties

749
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:19,320
Speaker 1: at risk of being punished by the inquiry. I was

750
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,200
Speaker 1: leagued a confidential letter written by Paul McCowan, a solicitor

751
00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:26,080
Speaker 1: for the Medical Board, in which he had attacked my

752
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: formal statement.

753
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:31,360
Speaker 16: He wrote, we are concerned that a draft proof of

754
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 16: evidence has been produced and circulated which is directly or

755
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:39,120
Speaker 16: implicitly critical of our clients, in particular mister Adempsey and

756
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 16: the Medical Board of Queensland.

757
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,200
Speaker 1: The Board's hide took my breath away when it became

758
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:49,040
Speaker 1: clear that my statement would not be formally tendered as evidence.

759
00:50:49,719 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 1: I thought I knew how Dennis Lennox felt when his

760
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:59,440
Speaker 1: report was buried. Meanwhile, Peter Beady's book called Making a Difference, Life,

761
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 1: Lead Ship and Politics, flopped on its release. Written before

762
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 1: the Patel story broke, he nominates one of his top

763
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:10,800
Speaker 1: ten achievements.

764
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:15,200
Speaker 4: As providing the systems and budget to enable doctors, nurses

765
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:19,760
Speaker 4: and health workers to cut waiting times for public hospital

766
00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:23,920
Speaker 4: operations to the best on record in a health system,

767
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 4: which has been judged the most effective in Australia.

768
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:37,280
Speaker 1: Chapter fifty nine, Bring Him Back, nine to eleven. June

769
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:42,520
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, Tony Hoffman felt like a supporting

770
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:45,640
Speaker 1: actor in a horror film that had received worldwide attention.

771
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:50,040
Speaker 1: The heroine screams had finally been heard, but where she

772
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 1: asked was the lead performer? Where was Jayant Patel?

773
00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 2: Lazette, my friend from Sweden reckons He's put on a

774
00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 2: turban and is writing the Jimu Express.

775
00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 1: Poffman's close friend, who lived in Gothenburg, where the Patel

776
00:52:05,719 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 1: story had just made the front page, recalled fond memories

777
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: of their travels in India when both were young nurses,

778
00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:16,520
Speaker 1: except for some hair raising experiences on a train, the

779
00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 1: Jamu Express, before public hearings moved from Brisbane to Bunderberg

780
00:52:22,239 --> 00:52:26,160
Speaker 1: on twenty June, I wanted to visit Patel's hometown in

781
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:30,000
Speaker 1: Gujarat Province in southwest India to talk to his friends

782
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: and former colleagues. There was a new urgency on ten June,

783
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: two days before photographer John Wilson and I bought it

784
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:42,720
Speaker 1: a quantus flight to Mumbai. A New Delhi based friend

785
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 1: called Rahul Bedi sent me one of many stories running

786
00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:50,400
Speaker 1: prominently in India. This is what the story reported.

787
00:52:51,640 --> 00:52:54,719
Speaker 6: An Indian train surgeon, linked by health officials to the

788
00:52:54,760 --> 00:52:58,520
Speaker 6: debts of at least eighty seven patients in Australia over

789
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:02,160
Speaker 6: two years, should be charged with murder, a government inquiry

790
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 6: recommended on Friday. The Commission of Inquiry investigating Patel's practice

791
00:53:07,239 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 6: at the Bunderberg Hospital recommended in an interim report on

792
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,000
Speaker 6: Friday that he be charged with murder in the death

793
00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:17,600
Speaker 6: of James Edward Phillips, who died five days after Patel

794
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:22,440
Speaker 6: surgically removed part of his esophagus. In recommending the murder charge,

795
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:25,320
Speaker 6: the report said there was no doubt that the surgical

796
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:31,720
Speaker 6: procedure undertaken by Patel was objectively likely to endanger human life.

797
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:35,720
Speaker 1: There was also a recommendation that doctor Patel be charged

798
00:53:35,800 --> 00:53:39,560
Speaker 1: with negligence for causing bodily harm in relation to the

799
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:44,200
Speaker 1: aboriginal patient Marilyn Daisy, who had developed gangren in her

800
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:48,440
Speaker 1: leg after she was allegedly left without treatment for several

801
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:53,359
Speaker 1: weeks following an amputation performed by Patel. Patel was also

802
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:58,240
Speaker 1: accused of having made false representations and having committed fraud

803
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 1: for allegedly false his application to practice medicine in Australia

804
00:54:03,640 --> 00:54:07,440
Speaker 1: by removing any mention of his disciplinary history in the

805
00:54:07,560 --> 00:54:12,560
Speaker 1: United States. A nineteen seventy four treaty between Australia and

806
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 1: the United States permitted extradition, and as the report disclosed,

807
00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:21,560
Speaker 1: Patel could face a maximum sentence of life in prison

808
00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:25,440
Speaker 1: if tried and convicted under Australian law, but there was

809
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:29,759
Speaker 1: also speculation that Patel might have returned to India, which

810
00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:35,760
Speaker 1: had no extradition treaty with Australia. Doctor Patel's Oregon based lawyer,

811
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:41,000
Speaker 1: Stephen Howes, had flatly refused to comment about his clients whereabouts.

812
00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 1: The lawyer said that he had only just received Tony

813
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:49,799
Speaker 1: Morris's interim report. He intended to give it very close scrutiny,

814
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 1: he added, but until then he wouldn't be saying anything.

815
00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:00,439
Speaker 1: The picture opportunity is usually a predictable setup in which

816
00:55:00,440 --> 00:55:04,879
Speaker 1: the participants shamelessly exploit an artificial moment and each other

817
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 1: for mutual benefit. Peter Beatty orchestrated picture opportunities every day.

818
00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: They were a lot cheaper than paid advertising. After nine

819
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 1: days of public hearings involving evidence from thirteen witnesses, four

820
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:23,320
Speaker 1: of whom were from Bunderberg based hospital, being Tony Hoffman,

821
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:27,959
Speaker 1: doctor Peter Meak, doctor Darren Keating and the hospital's head

822
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: Peter Legg, Tony Morris believed that he had heard enough

823
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:36,640
Speaker 1: to give Betty an interim report. Their meeting meant a

824
00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:42,040
Speaker 1: picture opportunity. Meanwhile, both Bettie and I had penned separate

825
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:46,120
Speaker 1: letters to j Patel. Mine went to his hot mail

826
00:55:46,239 --> 00:55:50,880
Speaker 1: email address. It said, in part, perhaps you are following

827
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:53,759
Speaker 1: the evidence in the Commission of Inquiry as well as

828
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:56,560
Speaker 1: the media is reporting. If you would like to put

829
00:55:56,600 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 1: any part of your side of the story or make

830
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:03,000
Speaker 1: any comment, feel free to email me, I assure you

831
00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:07,200
Speaker 1: that anything you want to say will be reported. Betty

832
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: tabled his letter to Betel in State parliament, posted it

833
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:14,000
Speaker 1: on the Smart State's website, and sent it to the

834
00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:17,080
Speaker 1: media in Oregon. It was unsubtle.

835
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:22,440
Speaker 4: If you maintain, as members of your family have reportedly stated,

836
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:26,759
Speaker 4: that you are an excellent doctor who provided quality care

837
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:30,080
Speaker 4: to your patients, you also owe it to yourself to

838
00:56:30,160 --> 00:56:35,560
Speaker 4: come forward and defend your actions. He urged Patel to

839
00:56:36,400 --> 00:56:40,680
Speaker 4: return to Queensland as soon as possible to explain your

840
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:44,840
Speaker 4: actions in relation to the treatment received by patients of

841
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:46,480
Speaker 4: the Bunderberg Base Hospital.

842
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:51,040
Speaker 1: As part of the enticement, Betty offered a one way

843
00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:55,160
Speaker 1: economy class airfare to Brisbane. It was a far cry

844
00:56:55,280 --> 00:56:59,240
Speaker 1: from Patel's last flight, funded by the Betti government in April,

845
00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 1: when he had fled Queensland with a one way business

846
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:06,520
Speaker 1: class fare to Portland, Oregon. The letter was meant to

847
00:57:06,520 --> 00:57:09,279
Speaker 1: be seen as deadly serious, but it looked like a

848
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:13,279
Speaker 1: childish stunt. Nobody should have been surprised when Patel did

849
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:17,280
Speaker 1: not hop on the next available flight to Australia, although

850
00:57:17,320 --> 00:57:21,840
Speaker 1: Beattie became momentarily excited when the government's website manager noted

851
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:26,000
Speaker 1: that his letter had attracted a hit from someone in Portland, Oregon.

852
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:31,280
Speaker 1: Beattie publicly tipped that Patel was paying attention and considering

853
00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:35,640
Speaker 1: the offer. His hopes were dashed by Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg,

854
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:41,120
Speaker 1: who identified the real cyber visitor, an inquisitive Portland practitioner,

855
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:42,560
Speaker 1: doctor Russ Fariah.

856
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,240
Speaker 3: The Premier and his spin doctors need to be more

857
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:49,919
Speaker 3: careful in the future when they go about wildly speculating

858
00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:52,600
Speaker 3: in the media as to how close they are to

859
00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:54,160
Speaker 3: capturing doctor Patel.

860
00:57:55,240 --> 00:58:01,080
Speaker 1: Springbok gloated, my missive to Patel went un answered too.

861
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:04,600
Speaker 1: Marris had been doing his bit to encourage Patel's return

862
00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:08,720
Speaker 1: to Australia. He approved a letter to the surgeon's Portland lawyer,

863
00:58:09,040 --> 00:58:12,800
Speaker 1: Stephen Howes, to establish.

864
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:15,960
Speaker 8: Whether Patell is prepared to return to Queensland to participate

865
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 8: in the inquiry, and if so, what conditions such as

866
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:24,360
Speaker 8: payment of traveling and accommodation expenses, or even an indemnity

867
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:28,360
Speaker 8: from prosecution might be required by Patel in order to

868
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 8: secure his return.

869
00:58:30,640 --> 00:58:34,560
Speaker 1: Marris would acknowledge later that the communications had attracted no

870
00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: response whatsoever. The suggestion of an indemnity was surprising. The

871
00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 1: outcry from the people of Queensland had one been granted,

872
00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:48,960
Speaker 1: would have been deafening. Marris was approached before the start

873
00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:52,240
Speaker 1: of the inquiry by Tom Percy QC, who offered to

874
00:58:52,320 --> 00:58:56,040
Speaker 1: represent Patel. When Percy did not turn up at the

875
00:58:56,080 --> 00:59:00,200
Speaker 1: public hearings in Brisbane, Marris decided that Patel had being

876
00:59:00,240 --> 00:59:03,959
Speaker 1: chosen not to avail himself of the opportunity to participate

877
00:59:04,040 --> 00:59:07,880
Speaker 1: in the inquiry, had waived an entitlement to challenge the

878
00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:12,480
Speaker 1: evidence of his accusers or to introduce his own. Accordingly,

879
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:16,960
Speaker 1: Tony Morris recommended a multitude of criminal charges in his

880
00:59:17,240 --> 00:59:22,520
Speaker 1: interim report. He went further than anyone expected by proposing

881
00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:26,440
Speaker 1: felony murder charges as an alternative to manslaughter.

882
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:31,440
Speaker 8: It has traditionally been applied where death results from an

883
00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:34,680
Speaker 8: act of violence or negligence committed in the course of

884
00:59:34,720 --> 00:59:38,240
Speaker 8: a violent offense, such as a rape or an armed robbery.

885
00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:42,960
Speaker 1: Morris said that so long as the act done unlawfully

886
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 1: was likely to endanger human life, the charge could be justified.

887
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:52,320
Speaker 1: He provided a helpful example if a pedestrian is knocked

888
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:55,400
Speaker 1: down and killed by the reckless driving of a getaway

889
00:59:55,440 --> 00:59:59,360
Speaker 1: car used by bank robbers, a felony murder charge could

890
00:59:59,400 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 1: be brought because the reckless driving of the car was

891
01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:05,920
Speaker 1: likely to endanger human life.

892
01:00:06,120 --> 01:00:09,120
Speaker 8: Ordinarily, even the grossest negligence on the part of a

893
01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:13,560
Speaker 8: medical practitioner would not attract a murder conviction unless the

894
01:00:13,640 --> 01:00:17,360
Speaker 8: jury could be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the

895
01:00:17,480 --> 01:00:21,320
Speaker 8: degree of negligence was inconsistent with any state of mind

896
01:00:21,520 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 8: other than a positive intention to kill. But very different

897
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:30,040
Speaker 8: considerations apply where, for example, an impostor pretends to be

898
01:00:30,080 --> 01:00:33,880
Speaker 8: a medical practitioner and kills a patient whilst attempting to

899
01:00:33,920 --> 01:00:35,920
Speaker 8: perform a surgical procedure.

900
01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:42,160
Speaker 1: Although Patel had medical training and qualifications, his efforts in

901
01:00:42,280 --> 01:00:45,840
Speaker 1: Bunderberg and the outcomes for the patient were the result

902
01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:51,080
Speaker 1: of his deceptions. Put simply, as he was operating unlawfully,

903
01:00:51,400 --> 01:00:56,600
Speaker 1: he had forfeited the usual protections afforded to doctors. Peter Beatty,

904
01:00:56,760 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 1: who commended every word of the interim report for Ron Morris,

905
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:05,120
Speaker 1: ram through more legislative changes to tighten the registration system

906
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,640
Speaker 1: for doctors and increase the penalties for imposts.

907
01:01:09,920 --> 01:01:14,520
Speaker 4: This is terrible. This happened on our watch. This will

908
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:18,480
Speaker 4: be a matter on our consciences until the day we die.

909
01:01:18,680 --> 01:01:21,440
Speaker 4: What we have to do in those circumstances is to

910
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,920
Speaker 4: ensure that the perpetrator is brought to justice and the

911
01:01:24,960 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 4: system is improved so it never happens again. And that's

912
01:01:29,400 --> 01:01:33,320
Speaker 4: what we're doing with the legislation today.

913
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:37,520
Speaker 1: The promotion by Tony Morris of the idea that a

914
01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:41,800
Speaker 1: surgeon could be charged with murder caused grave concern outside

915
01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:46,200
Speaker 1: the political arena. Some lawyers believed he was grandstanding and

916
01:01:46,360 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 1: had gone too far. The report Dave Ron Ashton and

917
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:55,640
Speaker 1: Jeff Deem, the lawyers for Peter Leck and doctor Darren Keating, respectively,

918
01:01:55,880 --> 01:02:00,960
Speaker 1: another potential legal argument in any Supreme Court challenge. They

919
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:03,760
Speaker 1: would be able to argue that Morris had made up

920
01:02:03,760 --> 01:02:08,520
Speaker 1: his mind before witnesses were cross examined. Morris had made

921
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:13,800
Speaker 1: secondary recommendations for the provisional arrest of Patel and his extradition.

922
01:02:14,720 --> 01:02:19,160
Speaker 1: But extradition from where where do you hide or reside,

923
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:23,320
Speaker 1: never mind work when thousands of Internet sites around the

924
01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:27,120
Speaker 1: world have posted your photograph and name under the heading

925
01:02:27,440 --> 01:02:32,360
Speaker 1: doctor death For someone accustomed to living the high life,

926
01:02:32,600 --> 01:02:36,120
Speaker 1: flying up the front of the aircraft, enjoying the financial

927
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:40,720
Speaker 1: spoils of surgery and the ego stroking Petel's predicament was

928
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 1: difficult to imagine. The news had traveled quickly to India

929
01:02:45,760 --> 01:02:49,200
Speaker 1: and the United States, where reporters and TV crews began

930
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:54,440
Speaker 1: staking out Patel's home again. Bloggers and media conglomerates alike,

931
01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:57,680
Speaker 1: from one person outfits to The New York Times and

932
01:02:57,720 --> 01:03:01,400
Speaker 1: its worldwide subscribers were zero rowing in on him as

933
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:06,240
Speaker 1: surely as law enforcement officials. His name, image and home

934
01:03:06,320 --> 01:03:10,080
Speaker 1: address were known two millions of people. Thanks to evidence

935
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:13,880
Speaker 1: at the inquiry, we even had details of his US

936
01:03:13,880 --> 01:03:18,760
Speaker 1: passport issued shortly before he came to Australia. It bore

937
01:03:18,840 --> 01:03:22,760
Speaker 1: the number two zero seven five five six zero four

938
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:27,160
Speaker 1: zero and was due to expire on seventeen December twenty twelve,

939
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 1: and if he used his American Express credit card, police

940
01:03:31,480 --> 01:03:49,720
Speaker 1: would know about it. Sick to Death is written and

941
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:54,880
Speaker 1: presented by me Headley Thomas, the Australian's national Chief correspondent.

942
01:03:55,480 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 1: Claire Harvey is The Australian's editorial director, audio editor, production

943
01:04:01,240 --> 01:04:05,040
Speaker 1: and music have been done by Jasper Leik, with assistance

944
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:10,040
Speaker 1: from Leah Sammaglu and Neil Sutherland. Our producer is Christen

945
01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:16,280
Speaker 1: Amias Production Management by Stephanie Coombs, artwork by Sean Callanan.

946
01:04:17,200 --> 01:04:22,200
Speaker 1: Thanks to Ryan Osland, Matthew Condon, Karina Berger, Ellie Dudley,

947
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:28,320
Speaker 1: David Murray, Dominique McDermott, Zach Sculander and all our family,

948
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: friends and colleagues who helped in this series and contributed

949
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:38,360
Speaker 1: voice acting and special thanks to Tony Hoffman and Rob Messenger.

950
01:04:39,080 --> 01:04:43,360
Speaker 1: Subscribers to The Australian Here new episodes of Sick to

951
01:04:43,440 --> 01:04:47,960
Speaker 1: Death first at Sick to Death podcast dot com and

952
01:04:48,320 --> 01:04:54,320
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. You can get exclusive access to photographs, videos,

953
01:04:54,560 --> 01:05:01,240
Speaker 1: timelines and more at the website not