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Embattled Whanganui District Health Board officials have given an assurance they are doing all they can to ensure patients are safe after a series of botched operations at Wanganui Hospital.
The officials today received a grilling from MPs over a series of failed sterilisations carried out at the hospital by disgraced Czech-trained surgeon Roman Hasil.
Last month a critical Health and Disability Commissioner report into the saga found eight of 32 sterilisations performed by Dr Hasil in 2005 and 2006 failed, with six women subsequently becoming pregnant. Most of them had abortions.
Commissioner Ron Paterson found the DHB breached the Health and Disability Code by not properly checking Dr Hasil's background, failing to monitor his practice effectively and failing to respond to concerns about him fast enough.
National MPs on Parliament's health select committee today attacked the DHB's performance, accusing chief executive Memo Musa of cutting corners in employing Dr Hasil.
But Mr Musa said the board had relied on the recruitment agency that referred Hasil to it to check his references.
It had since changed its procedures and was now in the process of checking the credentials of all of its clinical staff - about 70 per cent of whom were foreign trained.
Mr Musa acknowledged Dr Hasil and those monitoring him in the obstetrics and gynaecology department were stressed and overworked by staff shortages as the DHB tried to maintain a 24-hour seven-day acute service.
He said the DHB was addressing its serious recruitment problems by collaborating with nearby MidCentral DHB, meaning some patients would receive treatment in Palmerston North.
The DHB was also looking at "regionalising" other at-risk services in collaboration with MidCentral.
Mr Musa denied he had been slow to act on concerns about Dr Hasil, but said several separate complaints about his practice were treated in isolation and did not immediately reach his office.
If they had been immediately drawn together it would have become clear far more quickly that there were major problems.
The DHB had since rectified its procedures.
Board chairwoman Kate Joblin said the DHB had been moving to address the problems identified by Mr Paterson long before his report was published.
It had publicly apologised and was making changes across the whole organisation to ensure there was no recurrence of the string of failures that led to the botched operations.
Ms Joblin said she believed the DHB had the support and confidence of the community.
Last month the board accepted Mr Paterson's report in its entirety.
The report outlined Dr Hasil's "chequered" work history in Australia from 1996 to 2005.
He had lied about a criminal conviction which saw him jailed in Singapore in 1995 and made a hasty exit from Lismore Base Hospital in New South Wales in 2005 where there was an allegation against him for "fiddling" timesheets - an accusation he denied.
He was dismissed from a Victoria hospital in 2005 for alcohol use while on duty.
He misled Whanganui District Health Board about his work and registration history in Australia and started work in 2005 as medical officer of health in its obstetrics and gynaecology department.
He was to be supervised by the head of the department, but the pair worked "demanding and unsustainable hours in a grossly understaffed department".
Concerns came from the outset. Some nurses said he had had alcohol on his breath at times while performing surgery and they spoke of his "rough" manner in examining patients.
Some patients have joined a class action being considered by a legal firm as a result of Dr Hasil's actions.
- NZPA
