Bremen, Germany —

A male nurse jailed for life 2 years ago for killing 2 patients murdered at least 90 patients, and possibly twice as many, police said yesterday.

Nurse Niels HOEGEL, 40, was jailed in February 2015 for 2 murders and 4 counts of attempted murder or causing bodily harm on ICU patients at the DELMENHORST Hospital near the northern city of Bremen.

Police said on Monday that forensic experts had exhumed and analysed more than 130 additional bodies  and had found evidence of a vastly higher death toll at 2 hospitals where HOEGEL worked from 1999 to 2005.

The death toll is unique in the history of the German Republic said the chief police investigator adding that HOEGEL killed “without a discernible pattern” and preyed on those especially in critical condition.

HOEGEL has admitted to injecting patients with drugs that can cause heart failure or circulatory collapse so he could then try to revive them and, when successful, shine as a saviour before his peers.

MEAG COMMENT:  Could this happen in Australia?  Yes.  Has it happened in Australia?  Yes.

CASK

Tasmanian man sues doctor, hospital for ‘medical negligence’ after leg amputation

14:00

PHOTO: Wayne Ball alleges he needed to have his leg amputated after a botched knee replacement. (Supplied)

A Tasmanian man is alleging he needed to have his leg amputated after a botched knee operation and is suing a medical specialist and his regional hospital.

Wayne Ball has launched a claim for unspecified damages for medical negligence against orthopaedic surgeon Dr Richard HOCKING and the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie following a left knee replacement in 2014.

The 61-year-old from Ulverstone alleges in a writ filed in the Burnie Supreme Court yesterday that the operation was unsuccessful because Dr Hocking, who was employed as a locum, did not have the necessary skill and care to perform the procedure.

After the operation, Mr Ball claims his leg became infected and there was instability and other complications with his knee that were not adequately treated.  He says two years later he was forced to have his leg amputated.

Mr Ball alleges he was not told about Dr Hocking’s professional history, which includes being suspended by the Medical Board of Australia, a decision that was later overturned.

Dr Hocking is now working for Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland and has no current medical restrictions limiting his practice.

MEAG COMMENT:  That says it all!  Queenslanders, beware.

READ ABC NEWS FULL STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-17/waybe-ball-files-medical-negligence-suit-against-richard-hocking/8816182

NEW SOUTH WALES —

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has thrown Australian tainted blood victims the ultimate lifeline.

With the Australian government ignoring its tainted blood disaster, never could a truer word be spoken that Australian politicians ARE NOT LISTENING.

READ MORE of Joanne McCarthy’s story:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/uk-prime-minister-theresa-may-has-thrown-australian-tainted-blood-victims-the-ultimate-lifeline-20170713-gxaxw5.html

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4788407/the-uk-decision-that-made-a-lake-macquarie-man-cheer/

MEDIA RELEASE

TAINTED BLOOD WARNING – HEALTH MINISTER URGED TO ACT

Australia’s tainted blood scandal is escalating to a bigger government cover-up than they want us to believe.  MEAG knows it’s bigger but Government doesn’t want you to know.

Our Prime Ministers and Ministers for Health have done absolutely nothing.  Their silence to this cover-up is deafening.  They are not listening.  The Australian Parliament is complicit in a cover-up on a criminal scale.  Bring on a “Hillsborough” inquiry in Australia to get to the bottom of Australia’s shame.

LONDON —

British Prime Minister Theresa May orders a “Hillsborough” style inquiry into Britain’s tainted blood scandal.

What does Australia get?  Deathly silence from our Prime Minister and Health Ministers.

Read more:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tainted-blood-scandal-inquiry-ordered-by-may-2qsbn3xhh?shareToken=702ae40b048cbe66b78fab063030472c

SYDNEY — Clinical fraud in sick system

From rogue possums to staff shortages.  NSW Health allowed a dodgy doctor work for 11 years.

Excuses from NSW Ministry of Health never cease for their maladministration.

A rogue possum and a desperate scramble for foreign medical staff to fill chronic shortages and a litany of catastrophic errors have all been blamed for a major health system breakdown which allowed a fake Indian doctor too work unqualified in NSW’s hospitals for over a decade.

Con artist Shyam ACHARYA stole the identity of Dr Sarang Chitale while the pair worked as interns at Joshi Hospital in the west Indian city of Pune, before travelling to NSW and using fake documents to work in 6 hospitals across Sydney and the Central Coast for 11 years.

Read more of Miles Godfrey’s story in today’s The Daily Telegraph:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au

SYDNEY —

Dr Frank SIMONSON, another Bega Valley notorious doctor known for his medical malpractice than anything else gets a 3 month’s suspension.  That is all.  With a track record like his, he should have been suspended permanently and not ever allowed to practise medicine again.

Who is going to “mentor” him?

This is the same doctor who said in 2008 that criminal Dr Graeme REEVES was a ‘an asset to the Bega Valley and one of the better surgeons he had worked with’.  That says it all.

30 June 2017

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’) has published orders and reasons for its decision in Stage 2 of proceedings following its finding of professional misconduct by Dr Frank SIMONSON on 1 June 2017.

On 29 June 2017, the Tribunal ordered that Dr Simonson’s registration be suspended for a period of three months effective from one month from this date. The Tribunal further ordered that following the expiry of the period of suspension, Dr Simonson’s registration will be subject to the following conditions:

• that he not work in a hospital setting in any capacity;
• to submit to an audit of his medical practice to be conducted by the Medical Council within 6 months;
• to participate in mentoring for a period of 12 months.

Decision

The Tribunal observed Dr Simonson’s lack of contrition and remorse and particularly his inability to express insight into his misconduct.

Further Information

The full decision is available at NSW Caselaw

AUSTRALIA —

The medicines and health products that failed Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) testing

Nothing new here.  The notorious TGA, Australia’s medicines regulator, lets the public again – routine maladministration.

Dodgy vitamins, contaminated medicines, a flu vaccine that didn’t work, ineffective hospital disinfectant and unreliable pregnancy tests are among products that have failed the national medicine regulator’s first published laboratory testing.

For the first time, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has released results of its routine product testing for quality and safety.

It admits that until now it has given the Australian public “very little” information about its testing activities.

PRODUCTS THAT FAILED THE TESTS:

• Bio-Logical Vitamins A and E Solution (Biological Therapies)
• Three batches of FLUVAX 2016 inactivated influenza vaccine, split virion thiomersal free 0.5mL injection syringe (CSL)
• All-purpose Cleaner Hospital Grade Disinfectant (Pelikan Artline)
• Digital Infrared Ear Themometer (Kogan Australia)
• Braun Touchless + Forehead Thermometer (RQSolutions Medical Devices Distribution Support)
• Feather Touch Vinyl Examination Gloves (Pro-Pac Packaging Australia)
• First Response Digital Pregnancy Test (Church and Dwight Australia)
• One Step Pregnancy Test (Minco Import & Export)
• Valoid cyclizine lactate 50mg/1mL injection ampoule (Amdipharm Mercury Australia)
• Seat Assemblies for Series-O Oxygen Regulator (Cigweld)
• Leukoplast Tan Surgical Tape (BSN Medical)
• Gauze from Procedure Kit (Multigate Medical Products)
• Chinese Sports Injuries Pill (Beeijing Tong Ren Tang Australia)
• 32 unregistered supplements, pills and capsules
• Various Kaiser Pharmaceutical supplements (Great Grand Care)

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2017

Read more at http://beta.9news.com.au/health/2017/06/26/19/20/the-medicines-and-products-that-failed-tga-testing#GpgzzEPRgXz5t1ca.99

SYDNEY —

The manslaughter trial into the death of the late Mrs Kerry McAllister in May 1996 concluded today with Judge Peter Zahra deciding that the Crown didn’t prove its case beyond reasonable doubt for gross criminal negligence.

Evidence before the court indicated that because Mrs McAllister “didn’t complain enough” her treating doctor “got off”.  This implies that Mrs McAllister was the cause of her own death.  Mrs McAllister was ill, critically ill, from septic shock and when patients are ill they do not complain.

She died 5 days after giving birth from sepsis following multiple organ failure because antibiotics were not administered following childbirth when she had a fever.  In this day and age for a new mother to die from sepsis IS criminal neglect.

Graeme REEVES, the ‘Butcher of Bega’ walks free from this crime and many others.  Inadequate medical record keeping added to his freedom.

The DPP dropped 61 charges in December 2013 but not on the merits of evidence; an outrageous decision by the NSW Attorney-General and a travesty of justice for Reeves’ many other victims.

Criminal doctor Graeme Stephen REEVES previous sentence was 3 years 6 months and he served 2 years 6 months.  He got out of jail early because he complained the jail health system was not up to his standards.

SYDNEY —

The psychiatrist slammed for misleading police by saying the Lindt Cafe terrorist was just “grandstanding” has been sacked.

The high profile psychiatrist, whose name is suppressed for some peculiar reason, has previously come under fire in court.

Well-known as an expert witness, the psychiatrist was previously criticized by a tribunal for preparing a report on a doctor who drugged and raped a patient based only on what the guilty doctor told him.  The tribunal rejected his opinion that the doctor would not do it again as having “little weight”

READ MORE:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/terror/police-sack-lindt-psychiatrist/news-story/87c211f9ee93476fafba7f93acdb9a14