Please speak up!

This is another call for dissatisfied ETS patients of Dr Murray MacCormick to write to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC). The more complaints about this ETS surgeon, the harder it will be for the HDC to simply write Dr MacCormick an educational letter as a way of 'resolving' the one complaint against Dr MacCormick that they are currently investigating.

To add some perspective....Richard Stubbs, a liver cancer and obesity specialist here in NZ, who had been the subject of numerous complaints in relation to not obtaining informed consent, was recently fined NZ$100,000 by the NZ Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. He was also censured, and ordered to undertake a mentoring programme for 18 months and have a practice audit.

Was this a fair result? Consider this doctor's history of harming patients:

-He appeared before the Tribunal in 1999 and was found guilty of conduct unbecoming a medical practitioner.
-Five complaints were made to the HDC about this doctor between 2002 and 2004, mostly in relation to consent.
-Another two complaints had been made to the HDC by 2007.
-The case that brought him before the Tribunal most recently was one that found him guilty of of professional misconduct, failing to obtain informed consent, and failure to adequately document post-operative care. In this case, the male patient, 'Mr N', died in 2006, after an operation with Dr Stubbs.

So...this doctor contributed directly to a man losing his life, and has had at least eight other formal complaints made about him in less than 10 years.

And he is still practising.

He also tried, unsuccessfully, to get name suppression for himself and the hospital he works at (Wakefield Hospital, in Wellington), and tried to get out of paying the NZ$100,000 fine by claiming that most of his earnings went toward research and he kept only a small portion for himself. The Tribunal looked into this and stated they were "not impressed" with his evidence, and upheld the fine.

Disheartening and disturbing? Without a doubt. And it also highlights the fact that it takes a lot of noise before these medical professionals who harm patients again and again and again finally come to the attention of those who pull the strings.

I hope Dr Stubbs never treats another patient again. His name has been all over the media here.

Could the Kiwi ETS Group achieve the same with Dr MacCormick???

The latest on the HDC complaint.....

The Health and Disability Commission (HDC) have written to say they are now giving Auckland ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick the chance to respond to the issues raised in our complaint.

The HDC also said in their letter that they do not have the authority to make a doctor financially compensate a patient, or to stop a doctor from practising* (*I think only the Medical Council of NZ has this authority). However, the HDC also wrote in their letter that they will consider the other 'desired outcomes' we stated in our complaint letter.

Another update on complaint against NZ ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick

The Kiwi ETS Group heard from the Health and Disability Commission (HDC) today. It turns out that, for the last two months, the complaint submitted by our group on behalf of a Kiwi ETS patient has been with the HDC's legal team.

It's not as exciting as it sounds....the HDC's legal team were simply determining whether or not to consider the complaint as separate to an earlier complaint made by the same patient against the same surgeon.

Now that the HDC's legal team have concluded that this most recent complaint is a new, separate complaint (this had already been specifically pointed out when the Kiwi ETS Group contacted the HDC in writing in June....), the complaint has been returned to the HDC and Auckland ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick should be contacted by the HDC any day now regarding the complaint, if he hasn't already.

So, the process of investigating the complaint has finally begun.

We are a bit disappointed that it has taken this long - 2 months - for the complaint investigation process to get started, and more so that the HDC did not contact us at all during the last 2 months to simply let us know what was happening. Still, at least the ball is now rolling.

(Please refer to older posts to read more about the story beind this complaint.)

Quick update on complaint about NZ ETS surgeon Dr Murray MacCormick

The Kiwi ETS Group's complaint has been received by the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) and the Kiwi ETS Group is now waiting to hear back from the HDC.

It has been a few weeks since we last heard from the HDC. We see this as a positive sign that the HDC is taking the time to thoroughly investigate the complaint.

Second update on complaint against NZ ETS surgeon Murray MacCormick

The Kiwi ETS group has made a complaint, on behalf of a New Zealand ETS patient, to the Health and Disability Commissioner about prolific Auckland ETS surgeon Dr Murray MacCormick.

The Kiwi ETS Group has highlighted the following in the complaint:

-We believe that Murray MacCormick failed to fully inform the patient about common and documented side effects of ETS;

-We believe Murray MacCormick misdiagnosed the patient's midlife facial sweating as hyperhidrosis depite the fact there were numerous red flags indicating the patient's condition was not hyperhidrosis;

-We believe Murray MacCormick showed an overall lack of care, professionalism and ethics in dealing with this patient;

-The Kiwi ETS group has evidence and anecdotal evidence that Murray MacCormick has a history of unhappy ETS patients, all of whom we believe he failed to inform about the common and documented side effects of ETS.

Updates on how the complaint progresses will be posted here.