Board under siege after warning outspoken surgeon

By MARTIN JOHNSTON and NZPA

Auckland health chiefs are coming under increasing pressure to recant their censuring of top orthopaedic surgeon Bruce Twaddle.

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson has added his voice to calls for a withdrawal of the letter of warning.

Mr Paterson said he met Auckland District Health Board chief executive Garry Smith yesterday.

"We had a good conversation about the point of principle. It's not my job to intervene in their management," Mr Paterson said.

"I encourage them to take some time and think about what they have done because it seems to me inappropriate to censure a doctor who has exhausted internal channels and is genuinely concerned for patient safety when they speak out."

Mr Smith said later: "I believe it is in the interests of all parties to take stock over the weekend."

MPs also joined the fray and the senior doctors' union signalled it would start a personal grievance action in a bid to force the withdrawal of Mr Twaddle's job warning.

National's health spokeswoman Lynda Scott - a doctor - said doctors were quitting because of "Government pressure" to stop them speaking out.

"Censuring doctors who speak out on behalf of patients is treating the symptom not the cause," she said.

Her colleague Paul Hutchison - also a doctor - seized on the resignation yesterday of Middlemore plastic surgeon Cary Mellow.

"His leaving illustrates the problems in the health system where Labour has created a huge central bureaucracy that is sucking up money but not delivering patient services."

Mr Twaddle, Auckland City Hospital's head of orthopaedic trauma services, was warned on Thursday that he risked dismissal if he made similar public comments to those which triggered the warning.

Board managers were annoyed that in a Herald report on the reduction of about 70 beds at the new hospital, Mr Twaddle said that resource restrictions were compromising patient care.

The board will not comment on its dealings with Mr Twaddle, but says the bed cut will be offset by efficiencies, more day-surgery and more beds elsewhere.

The warning letter, by hospital general manager Meng Cheong, says Mr Twaddle's comments "were very hurtful to our staff who have worked diligently for four years in planning the new hospital ... " But it acknowledged that he was a caring and skilled doctor.

Auckland City Hospital's 10 other orthopaedic surgeons, who last week signed a letter of support for Mr Twaddle, plan to meet on Tuesday to decide what further action to take.