ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr CONLAN: How do you budget for this if it is commercial-in-confidence?
Mr RYAN: There is a base budget for aeromedical as part of our base funding, if you like. If there is a
marked increase because of the contract, there would be submission we would put to Cabinet for
consideration.
Mr CONLAN: So, once the contract is awarded, then it can be made public. Is that right?
Mr RYAN: Yes.
Mr CONLAN: No worries. I did want to just talk about the issue with the unqualified doctor in Alice
Springs. I believe that is part of this Output 2.1. Is that right?
Mr VATSKALIS: It is actually generic. Is not …
Mr CONLAN: It is all about staffing …
Mr VATSKALIS: Happy to take it.
Mr CONLAN: Can you please tell the committee how it was that an unqualified doctor was able to
practice at Alice Springs Hospital for nine months, up until earlier this year? How did the medical
registration system fail so badly as to allow him to practice? Can you explain the circumstances
surrounding this situation?
Mr VATSKALIS: Now that the court has finished the investigation and he has been sentenced, I have
to advise that it was a very well-thought con. The person provided qualifications that were not
genuine. He had falsified the qualification. He had falsified qualification that were certified by a JP in
South Australia so, went they presented it to the Medical Board in the Northern Territory, the Medical
Board accepted it in good faith. For someone to go to that extent; it was not done before.
However, that person started working in Alice Springs Hospital as a trainee doctor. It was picked up
very quickly by higher staff, who identified that he did not even have the necessary skills, and alerted
Dr Lynch to this effect, and Dr Lynch proceeded immediately to investigate and suspend the doctor.
Immediately, we asked the board to have a look at the internal processes but, again, in the face of the
elaborate hoax he played, I do not think anybody would have picked it up by just looking at the
documentation, only by looking at what he did..
I also asked the department to have a look and review our system; how we look at the doctors we get.
What we do know was actually provided to me last week. I have asked the department to provide me
with, in writing, what they are going to do so, if let us say somebody managed to pass the Medical
Board registration, we can pick it up ourselves.
One thing that alerted me is that you can have a driving licence which has a number and where it is
issued. If you have a university degree - if you go back and look at your degrees, whoever has one –
it has no reference number. It has your name and the title you got. I brought that to the attention of the
new authority, under the new national scheme, that probably we should discuss with the universities
to find a way of registering degrees so, if somebody present themselves with certification, the
certifying authority can pick up the phone and question the university. Le us say, Flinders University
medical degree No 375 in the name of Kon Vatskalis. Is it true? They can look at their database and
say it is true.
That person had a degree which actually, was a genuine degree originally, because he had to finish a
science degree of the university. He then changed the title of the degree; instead of a science degree
he made it a medical degree.
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr CONLAN: Minister, will you make the findings of the inquiry ...
Mr VATSKALIS: Absolutely. I will make the findings of the inquiry and the measures we are going to
take to prevent something like that happening in the future.
Mr CONLAN: Can you put on the record how many people were actually treated by this alleged
doctor?
Mr WILSON: I am not sure if we actually have that figure here, but we certainly can do that. It is
around 400, if you are happy with a round 400, or we can give you the exact number.
Mr CONLAN: Well, if we can get that, that will be good. I believe it was around 400.
Mr VATSKALIS: Again, he did not do it by himself; he was always under supervision of some other
doctors because he was a training doctor.
Mr CONLAN: Were all 400 people treated with a fully-qualified doctor?
Mr WILSON: It was a very close process that was gone through. Peter Lynch and another senior
doctor in Alice Springs have identified that the care he had done was very much within the role that he
thought he was practicing, in terms of a first-year doctor, which relies on very close supervision.
Mr CONLAN: Have those patients who came into contact with this doctor been contacted and made
aware they were treated by someone who was not actually a doctor?
Mr WILSON: I will need to confirm that for you. There was a process, been through, exactly how it
operated between the DMS and Alice Springs, and the other senior doctor, in terms of reviewing all
the patient notes, and well publicised, and I know a lot of patients were contacted, but I do not know
whether they all were.
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Question on Notice No 7.15
Mr CHAIRMAN: There was actually a Question on Notice back a bit, if you want to do that.
Mr CONLAN: Yes. The question is: how many people were treated by this bogus doctor, this alleged
dodgy doctor?
Mr CHAIRMAN: That is question No 7.15.
Question on Notice No 7.16
Mr CONLAN: Also, are you able to provide information whether or not that number of patients, that
number, whatever it is, those 400 people, have been contacted by the department, at least the Alice
Springs Hospital and told that they were?
Mr CHAIRMAN: That is question No 7.16
Mr VATSKALIS: My advice was that they were, but I will confirm it.
Mr CONLAN: Some might not even be in town.
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