Doctors fight 'witch-hunt'

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Auckland health chiefs have been accused of going on a "witch-hunt" that threatens doctors' rights to speak out on patient safety.

The senior doctors' union says it has started personal grievance cases for two Auckland City Hospital doctors who were disciplined over their media statements. A third is being called to account today.

The Herald understands that intensive care specialists Dr Les Galler and Dr Gill Hood were given formal warnings over their assertions, on a Sunday television current affairs programme in April, of ill-preparedness for Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

It is further understood that the doctor being called before management today is the head of orthopaedic trauma, Bruce Twaddle, over fears he expressed in the Herald and repeated on television about the reduction in bed numbers at the new hospital.

Dr Hood and Dr Galler declined to comment yesterday and Mr Twaddle could not be contacted.

Ian Powell, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, said senior doctors were entitled to speak publicly about standards of care for patients in their areas of expertise.

"The collective contracts explicitly provide for that right and that where there is a difference between responsibility to one's patients and to one's employer, the responsibility to patients prevails.

"The Auckland District Health Board is eroding these principles. It's behaving in a narrow, rigid and punitive manner that has all the elements, whether intended or not, of intimidation or bullying. It amounts to a witch-hunt."

Yesterday, Mr Powell said the union wanted to "develop a new collaborative culture" with the board. He had appealed to interim chief executive Garry Smith to intervene to protect doctors' right to speak out.

The board's communications manager, Megan Richards, declined to respond to Mr Powell's comments, saying that to do so would breach the privacy of employees.

"But there's no witch-hunt."

Mr Twaddle's comments that upset managers were published on October 3, the day before the new hospital opened.

He said his service was being reduced to 50 beds, from 54, despite caring for 70 patients. The extras would be put in non-orthopaedic wards, which was not ideal.

"The restriction of resources that we will continue to face compromises the care we can give to our patients," he said.

Mr Twaddle has previously criticised what he considers insufficient orthopaedic resources. But tensions between him and the board go back to a Sunday programme last year when the chairman ridiculed him during an attack on doctors, for which he later apologised.

After the show, Mr Twaddle told the Herald that alienating staff was counter-productive and Mr Brown should be fired.

On Sars, the television interviews with Dr Hood and Dr Galler canvassed concerns about extractor fans and training.

The board denounced the programme as "reprehensible" and said that special fans were on the way and Sars training was nearly complete.