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A former Wanganui Hospital patient says a string of sterilisation failures there could have been avoided if the district health board had taken seriously a complaint she laid.
The woman laid the complaint with the Whanganui District Health Board in 2005 after a "traumatic" gynaecological examination by Dr Roman Hasil.
Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson announced last week he was investigating the board after six women out of 32 Dr Hasil performed sterilisation operations on became pregnant.
Dr Hasil was employed at the hospital from August 2005 until he quit last week. He is believed to have left the country.
The woman told the Wanganui Chronicle she believed the failed sterilisation surgeries might not have happened if the board had taken her complaint more seriously.
She said she wrote to the board on October 30, 2005, after a pelvic examination left her "shocked" and "humiliated".
Board correspondence shows Dr Hasil was interviewed before November 8 but the woman had to wait until January 24 the next year to meet hospital staff.
On February 20 she received a letter from chief executive Memo Musa acknowledging her distress and a letter of apology from Dr Hasil.
"Mr Stegmann - Dr Hasil's supervisor - is satisfied with Dr Hasil's explanation regarding the care provided but concludes that cultural differences may have contributed and [he] believes Dr Hasil has learned from this complaint."
Although the complaints system had not satisfied her, the woman said she had not pursued the matter to the Health and Disability Commissioner as she did not have faith the outcome would change.
She also did not think the board had given her complaint the weight it deserved.
The patient, who had endured months of abdominal pain after coming off the pill after 16 years, said she attended a clinic with Dr Hasil on October 26, 2005, when the pain became so severe she could hardly walk.
Within 10 minutes Dr Hasil diagnosed her with "pelvic varices" (varicose veins of the uterus) even though he had not taken a full history, performed a pelvic examination or done any tests, she said.
Doctors later confirmed she did not have pelvic varices.
Dr Hasil then performed an "extremely rough examination" despite the pain she was in, causing a perineum repair on her vagina to rip, she said.
When she tried to discuss with him how rough he had been, she said he seemed to become annoyed.
"When I said I had wanted him to tell me what he was doing [during the exam] and that I had wanted to discuss things with him he started mentioning the time I was taking up."
- NZPA
