Dear V. Mehta,

I'm sorry but I don't really care to comment any
further on J. Patel.
I've had my say and suffice to say that I am relieved
that he's leaving our country.

Foxy, the responsibility lays squarely on those in charge of the medical board.

They, like so many in this new working world were quite simply incompetent.

You strike incompetence in so many government and non government departments it's scary.

Too much focus on RDO's, working conditions and trying to blend family time with work commitments, and not enough on the job at heand.

Our work ethics, on the whole, have slipped as we place too much importance on our personal wants than on the task at hand.

The DPP is just another example of incompetence.

I will bet their personal lives were well managed!

I too no longer wish to contribute to this thread.
While understanding our author has put together a good defense I am unsure it proves much.
Australia has no record of targeting Doctors.
And has many from all over the world fitting in with local community's and valued for not only medical skills but great contributions to those community's.
Know the great pain Nurses faced and family's of those unfortunates who became victims of this man?
I think the thread is a white wash and no matter what the evidence no agreement can be gained so? I leave without change to my view Doctor death is a true description of the mans actions.

Extension of Contract:

On the Christmas Eve 2004, after Dr. Patel already completely 21 of his 24 months contract at Bundaberg Hospital, he submitted a letter of intent not to renew the contract. He decided he was not going to stay beyond his contract till the end of March 2005.
Director of the Hospital offered him 4 (Four) years extension of contract and wrote a very complimentary letter praising his work at Bundaberg Hospital.

This is very important because this allows us to see Jayant Patel is he was seen by the Hospital administrators and his superiors. Mind you that these superiors had heard the complains from the Tony Moynihan and likes. They were the ones who saw the performance of Dr. Patel day in and day out. They are the ones who promoted him to the Director of surgery. The key is to understand their mindset to keep Dr. Patel working for 4 more years.

If he were as big a monster as the whistle blowers and prosecution contended there is not reason for his boss to favor Dr. Patel. Dr. Patel was not bribing them or was not related to them.

These senior physician and administrator had seen many surgeons in their life tile and each one of them have certain strengths and certain weakness. And based on the total picture they had seen they felt asking Dr. Patel to stay was in the interest of the hospital.

My point here is this. Dr. Patel was not a perfect or outstanding surgeon but he was not Dr. Death or he was not some criminal set out to harm the patients. His story was so embellished that people believed (and many will still continue to believe even after all the charges of medical negligence have been dropped) that he was an extremely bad surgeon.

Having been a surgeon for more than 35 years I can tell you that if you use Dr. Jayant Patel as an yardstick you will find a lot of surgeons who can be painted worse than him.

Dear V. Mehta,

Hospitals want to avoid lawsuits from family members.
And telling us that J. Patel is not as bad as some
other surgeons does not excuse him and is a lame
excuse. . As I stated
earlier, I am glad that he will be gone from our
shores. You haven't answered my earlier question -
are you a friend of J. Patel?

@ Foxy.

The answer is no I do not know Dr. Jayant Patel or not connected to him or related to him or ever met him. Only time I have ever talked to him is when he called after all his trials were over a week ago.

I first heard of Dr. Patel thru headlines on Internet news. As a Chief of Surgery it roused my curiosity. I started following the Morris commission right from the start.

My initial reaction was like everyone else - that he was a bad surgeon who killed hundreds of people. However, before soon I realized that something did not add up. All the allegations were so outrageous. How come someone from US land in small town (Pop 75,000) kills so many people over 24 months? Who were the people who hired him? Who promoted him? And more important who allowed him to carry on?

Being familiar with the function of hospital I found that the story being fed to people was not plausible. When Premier Beaty came to US and held a press conference saying that, "he was there to fish out Dr. Patel!" I wondered why does a Premier have to come to Portland to fish out so-called criminal? Don't we have treaties to deal with such issues? Thomas Hedley penned a book "Sick to Death" without ever trying to find out the Patel side of the story.

As the case evolved it became obvious to me (during the first trial) that prosecution did not have evidence to back up the charges of manslaughter or grievous body harm. And now, as the whole world knows Prosecution has admitted to that and dropped all the charges related to medical care by Dr. Patel.

This does not absolve the deception of not disclosing the license restriction by Dr. Patel. But you should not charge someone for manslaughter when your have evidence to charge deception