Unethical behaviour of a doctor nearby

Karsten from Todds Valley

A sad story about a patient who has been treated in a Hospital.

It is not a fairy tale; it is a true story of breaches of the consumer rights of a patient and the cover up from the DHB and the Health and Disability Commissioner.

A doctor at a Hospital was in breach of at least 3 Rights

1. Right 1 Right to be treated with respect
2. Right 4 Right to Services of an Appropriate Standard
3. Right 5 Right to Effective Communication

Now to the story

Lets call the person Emma Weka. Emma was informed by Immigration New Zealand, that she needs an individual assessment from a specialist regarding her health standard.

Emma immediately called the doctor at the Hospital to arrange her assessment. The office of the doctor told her she will be called back. After 2 days nothing happened and she called the office again. To her surprise she was told, that the doctor has already prepared the letter to Immigration and it is posted. The letter arrived and was as expected totally wrong. Emma called again and asked again for an appointment. She explained again the reasons for the letter and the content that was requested by Immigration. Again an appointment was refused and she was told that a new letter would be prepared. Also the doctor is not in the Hospital in the next days. She can pick up the letter the next day.

Emma went to the Hospital to pick up the letter and to her surprise the doctor who was supposed not to be working was working. In the moment she saw the doctor and the doctor saw her, the doctor rushed away to avoid any kind of communication.

The new letter was better, but it still was missing the individual assessment. Also the doctor provided different information to Immigration as was provided to Emma. The test behind the results stated 83% provided to Emma as a print out and to Immigration was provided a 79%. Emma gave up to try to get an appointment, because the behaviour of the doctor made clear, that she don’t want to see her.

We only can assume the reasons of the doctor to refuse any kind of communication. It could be that Emma is an Immigrant or that Emma refused the doctor recommended treatment. We will never know the true reason for the behaviour.

The letter went as it was to Immigration and the result was not only that her Visa was declined on top of it Immigration issued a “Red Flag” on her passport. Emma was told to leave the country immediately. At the time she left she was not informed about the “Red Flag” and she planned to come back on a Visitor Visa to sort things out. She had to leave her family, business and her old dog behind. She just left with 1 bag to go overseas. She is meanwhile separated from her loved ones more than 5 month.

A complaint to the DHB resulted in two letters written by the doctor, which are full of excuses, blames to the system and no sign of taking any kind of responsibility. Also the doctor is not telling the truth and is ending up in wild explanations.

She arranged to get her patient file and was very surprised that not only her file was incorrect, because the appointment where she got the printout was not with the correct date in the file; it was also missing the printout, which is vital information for a patient. This leads to the question; Was the doctor not only sloppy with the appointment date, was he also sloppy with the file itself by not putting the document in or was it later removed to avoid questions regarding the test itself?

Another question occurs as well; How can you trust a doctor with medication, if the doctor is unable to do the simple task like getting the date of an appointment right and providing a document to the patients file.

The DHB refused to investigate the matter and blamed Immigration to cover up the whole matter. A further complaint to the Health & Disability Commissioner resulted also in the refusal to investigate, which subsequently confirms that the authorities accept that a doctor can refuse to see a patient. Also a request of help with the Human Rights Commission resulted in their refusal of taking the case on.

Reasons for the refusal could be to avoid any consequences for the doctor and also the maybe more likely is that the test in question could be faulty or manipulated by the issuer to the advantage of the sponsor of the test. This test is a standard instrument used by doctors all over New Zealand.

Nevertheless Emma is unable to see her family again. She lost her business and maybe she will never see her beloved dog again.

One thing needs to be stated Immigration New Zealand is not to blame. Immigration has only done their job and had no other chance as to decide as they have. All this trouble is based on the behaviour of a doctor at the Hospital.

It also needs to be stated, that everything told can be proven. The document in question exists and was also provided to the Health & Disability Commissioner. It would have taken the case manager less than one minute to find out that the answers given in writing by the doctor are not true. It seems that the authorities were never interested to proof the evidence provided carefully.

This story is a shame for the authorities and not for the lovely people of New Zealand, but it seems to be time that the people are informed what is going on with humble immigrants.

Names are fictive. The Hospital and Doctor can’t be named to avoid legal actions by the authorities.