KEY POINTS:
Private hospitals have been told they must improve quality of care and safety after the deaths of two women at Wellington's Wakefield Hospital.
Beverly Malone, 54, died five years ago, and Moina Simcock, 63, died three years ago, both while recovering from keyhole surgery.
The post-operative care by surgeons Gary Stone and Vasu Iyengar has been heavily criticised by Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson in a report obtained by Radio New Zealand.
Mr Stone has also been referred for possible further legal action, while Ms Iyengar has been referred to the Medical Council for a competency review. While Mr Paterson did not find Wakefield Hospital to be in the wrong, he said changes needed to be made to ensure patients got better attention.
Mrs Malone died from peritonitis and multi-organ failure after her small bowel was perforated during surgery by Mr Stone to find the cause of ongoing abdominal pain.
Mrs Simcock died three weeks after routine gynaecological surgery by Ms Iyengar from septicaemia following a misdiagnosed hernia. She was discharged and readmitted to the hospital three times before her death.
Mr Paterson agreed with the bereaved husbands of the two patients that trust in the private hospital system was "sometimes misplaced".
"There isn't the back-up [available in a public hospital] and there's not the triggers and alerts when a patient starts to go downhill."
Mr Paterson called for tighter regulations on the reporting of adverse events in private hospitals and a uniform set of standards for care in private hospitals around the country, Radio New Zealand reported.
Wakefield Hospital chief executive Andrew Blair said changes had been made to its systems since the deaths of Mrs Malone and Mrs Simcock.
- NZPA
