Don't let Patel operate, doctor warned colleagues

Brisbane, Feb.20 (ANI): A senior doctor at Queensland's Bundaberg Base Hospital warned staff before he went on holidays that they shouldn't let controversial Indian-born surgeon Dr. Jayant Patel perform operations.

Dr. Peter Miach told a Brisbane magistrate's court on Friday that he had suspicions about the quality of Dr Patel's work after a general review showed the US-trained doctor botched every single catheter insertion he'd performed at Bundaberg Base Hospital.

Dr Miach, who was director of medicine and head of the renal unit when Dr Patel started working there in 2003, said he immediately arranged for catheter insertions to be outsourced to a private hospital.

He said he also instructed two locums who were filling in for him when he went overseas not to let Dr Patel perform surgery.

"(I told them) 'I would get surgery done by other people'," Dr Miach told Dr Patel's committal hearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court today.

He also said he did not believe Dr Patel should have operated on patient James Phillips, who died after an oesophagectomy to treat cancer in 2003.

Dr Patel, 58, faces a total of 13 charges, including two other counts of manslaughter, over his time as director of surgery at the hospital between 2003 and 2005.

Earlier today, another doctor complained Dr Patel did not consult with her before treating one of her patients.

Jennifer Crane said she was "very surprised" when she learned Gerry Kemps had agreed to an oesophagectomy at the hospital in 2004.

She said Mr Kemps, who died following the operation performed by Dr Patel, was a high risk patient who needed treatment in a major metropolitan hospital. (ANI)