Two hospital chiefs have been sacked over a series of surgical errors at Rockhampton Base Hospital.

The repeat errors, by an overseas-trained doctor, echo the notorious Jayant Patel controversy.

Mackenzie Lyon reports.

TRANSCRIPT

State Parliament sat for the first time in over a month today and the Minister for Health, Lawrence Springborg, wasted no time in announcing the news.

Lawrence Springborg: “An independent inquiry convened under the Hospital and Health Board’s Act will investigate four cases involving the same surgeon stretching back to 2011.”

The cases are all from Rockhampton Base Hospital.

Health authorities say the most serious medical botch saw a patient’s artery knicked during surgery and eventually losing massive amounts of blood and being urgently transported to Brisbane for treatment.

In another incident a patient’s healthy right kidney was removed instead of the diseased left one.

The un-named surgeon has been banned from operating at the hospital in addition to a senior staffer being sacked and another stepping down.

Just as Bundaberg’s Dr Death saga appeared to be in the rear vision mirror, this latest suspect surgeon has opened another wound in Queensland’s regional hospitals.

Rockhampton’s health department is now under immense scrutiny and local MP William Byrne wants answers.

William Byrne, Member for Rockhampton: “It goes much further than simply that it’s a single error, of a single surgeon, in a single situation. This is systemic issues and that really red flags for me.”

Ian Maynard, Queensland Health’s Director General agrees.

Ian Maynard, Qld Health Director General: “I’m keen to get results as quickly as possible, because if there are changes that need to be made on a local level or system wide, the earlier we become aware of those changes the better.”

There are now three separate investigations to find out how the surgical mistakes were made, and missed.

Mackenzie Lyon, QUT News.