NEWS HR
December 3, 2018
A nurse has been stabbed by a patient at Christchurch’s Hillmorton Hospital, a day before top health officials are due to meet staff over concerns about violence. The staff member was attacked during a shift at the hospital’s adult mental health inpatient unit on Sunday, a Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) spokeswoman confirmed.
December 3, 2018
The New Zealand Medical Association’s 2018 Richard Robinson Award goes to Professor Doug Sellman and co-authors Ria Schroder, Daryle Deering, Jane Elmslie, James Foulds and Chris Frampton. The Robinson Award is given for excellence in medical writing and a clinically relevant manuscript. It is given at the discretion of the New Zealand Medical Journal’s Editor in Chief Professor Frank Frizelle and brings with it $2,000 of sponsorship.
November 30, 2018
Dr Lance Lawler, the former chief executive and one of the founding partners of Pacific Radiology Group, has been appointed the chair of the Research for Life board. Lance joined Research For Life’s board in July last year and succeeds Professor John Nacey who has led the board since 2000. Prof. Nacey will continue to serve as a board member.
November 30, 2018
A Christchurch nurse has serious burns after a mental health patient threw boiling water at her. Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) mental health services general manager Toni Gutschlag said the incident happened in Hillmorton Hospital’s acute inpatient unit on Monday. The unit is a facility for adults with mental illness who require 24-hour nursing care. Gutschlag said the nurse was “doing well” and was in a comfortable condition. The CDHB and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation are working on a project to reduce the risk of violence against nurses. “The project aims to address assaults and threats, and is looking at ways to … prevent, de-escalate and manage aggressive behaviour,” Gutschlag said. “No level of violence towards staff, patients, or anyone else is acceptable.”
November 28, 2018
The Ministry of Health has announced the appointment of Martin Chadwick to the new role of Chief Allied Health Professions Officer.
November 28, 2018
A judge continued to refer to Rakesh Kumar Chawdhry as “Dr Chawdhry” at his latest sentencing because even after 13 indecency convictions he has still not been struck off. Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish said no disciplinary action had yet been taken against the 63-year-old. He had not been been formally struck off as a registered medical practitioner, though his registration appears to be no longer current. “You are still entitled to be called by that qualification,” she said as she sentenced him on two further indecent assault charges, which he admitted in August. Judge Farish added two months to the sentence Chawdhry received at his sentencing in February after he was convicted of indecent assaults and one sexual violation relating to 10 male complainants. He was convicted of 11 charges and jailed for more than four years. The publicity about the trial and the sentencing prompted two further men to come forward and make complaints. These involved men aged 26 and 28 who were seen by Chawdhry at the Amberley Medical Centre in 2011 and the Riccarton Clinic in 2013. The offending involved Chawdhry touching them in a sexualised way during sexually transmitted infection checks.
November 26, 2018
An oral surgeon who failed to properly diagnose his patient’s cancerous tongue lesion has lost an appeal against a $5000 fine for professional misconduct. In December 2017, New Plymouth-based oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr Peter Liston was censured, fined $5000 and ordered to pay $21,000 costs following a Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal ruling. The tribunal hearing, where Liston admitted professional misconduct, related to his patient Keith Hindson, who was found to have a cancerous tongue lesion the surgeon did not properly diagnose from the biopsy results. Liston, who runs a private practice in New Plymouth, saw Hindson 12 times between 2011-2013 at Whanganui Hospital, where he worked two and a half days a week. Hindson had been referred to Liston, after complaining to his GP about having a sore tongue. During the treatment, Liston performed one incisional biopsy and two excisional biopsies, with the last performed in October 2013. This found widespread features of “carcinoma in situ” but Liston told Hindson there was “nothing nasty” about the results and reassured the man there was time to deal with the condition before it became cancerous.
October 26, 2018
A doctor “joked he needed to finish dessert” before seeing a young patient who later died of meningococcal disease, a coroner has heard. Zachary Gravatt, 22, died of meningococcal disease at Auckland City Hospital on July 8, 2009. An inquest is currently being held into his death. In 2011, Coroner Brandt Shortland found the young medical student was let down by the system he was hoping to one day join. Auckland City Hospital was struggling to handle a flu epidemic at the time, Coroner Shortland found, and Gravatt wasn’t diagnosed in a “timely fashion” because of systemic failures. The Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) acknowledged that with different treatment it was possible Gravatt could have survived. It issued an apology and a financial settlement to the Gravatt family in 2013.
