DUBBO, WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES —

Speaking up and reporting failures gets a doctor sacked after revealing thousands of test results were never followed up at a major NSW hospital last year leading to the prescription of wrong medications, missed broken bones and the death of a baby girl, a doctor who worked there has alleged.

When the doctor tried to raise the alarm after discovering the unchecked results at Dubbo Base Hospital, he was accused of being “unsupportive” of colleagues and sacked, the Sydney Morning Herald can reveal.

“During that week I had personally gone through perhaps 2000 unchecked results,” the doctor said in an email to management, which was leaked to the Herald.  “This is an absolutely extraordinary number.”

The revelations put Dubbo Base Hospital back in the spotlight after a Herald investigation in May uncovered a death and a series of troubling near misses at the flagship facility and a second hospital within the Western NSW Local Health District.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is expected to come under renewed pressure after dismissing the need for an inquiry into regional NSW hospitals, as sources said the state opposition was close to securing the numbers for an inquiry examining the Herald’s revelations.

READ MORE OF CARRIE FELLNER’S STORY IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 12.09.2020:

Baby’s death leads to extraordinary discovery of 2,000 unchecked results at hospital