KEY POINTS:
Bay of Plenty District Health Board (DHB) says it will appeal an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ruling to reinstate a general surgeon.
The ERA ruled that Tauranga surgeon Ian Breeze, who retrained after a review of his poor performance, was entitled to have his Tauranga Hospital job back, even if staff there did not like it.
Mr Breeze was the subject of a Health and Disability Commissioner's (HDC) investigation into his care of patients between 1998 and 2002.
He was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in August 2003 in relation to his care of Tauranga man Lionel Crowley.
Mr Crowley died from an infection when a surgical join failed, after a December 1999 bowel operation.
In January 2004, the Medical Council of New Zealand banned him from performing bowel surgery until he retrained.
In December 2004, the HDC ruled he had breached patients' rights in four of seven cases investigated.
When Mr Breeze said he would retrain to return to full general surgery, family members of the former patients were horrified.
This year, Mr Breeze took a case to the ERA because he understood that once he had fulfilled Medical Council retraining requirements, he would get his job back at Tauranga Hospital.
ERA member Dzintra King ruled that she was satisfied that there was an agreement that once Mr Breeze's retraining had been completed, the DHB would have him back and would go through the credentialling process to enable him to re-enter the workforce as a surgeon at Tauranga Hospital.
DHB chief operating officer Graham Dyer said it would be appealing the ERA decision.
"We believe attempts to increase the complexity of the surgery Mr Breeze undertakes at Tauranga Hospital in an environment that the DHB cannot guarantee will be fully supportive is not in the best interests of the population we serve. Our key responsibility has to be to the people of the region," he said.
A number of staff had expressed that they did not feel they could work with or support Mr Breeze, said Mr Dyer.
Remarks by the ERA that colleagues and other clinical staff would simply have to work with Mr Breeze, ignored the potential risk to patient safety should staff not feel able to provide that support, he said.
"Maintaining patient safety must be the paramount concern to the DHB."
Since completing his retraining over 18 months ago, and then being found by the Medical Council to be only competent at an advanced trainee level, Mr Breeze had not performed any complex surgery, said Mr Dyer.
It was unclear whether given the time lag, further training and re-evaluation of his practice was required before Mr Breeze could consider returning to a full workload, he said.
"We intend to appeal the decision to the Employment Court, and to seek a stay of any orders that may be made by the Employment Authority," said Mr Dyer.
- NZPA
