HCCC

In 2021, thousands and thousands of people will lodge complaints with the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission about NSW doctors – it happens every year.

And how many of these thousands and thousands of people are on track to be told in 2021 that the HCCC agrees they have something to complain about, that a doctor they’ve seen hasn’t done a very good job – as opposed to those who will be told that they have nothing to complain about, in effect that they were stupid thinking they had a basis to complain?

5 or perhaps 6!!!!

This estimate is based on the fact that in the two or so months up until 9 Mar. 2021, there was 1 like that.

(Shown below is a list of the HCCC’s media releases for 2021, as taken from it’s own website on 9 Mar. 2021, confirming this.)

It’s been going on for years! It’s quite farcical!

Of course, nothing’s going to change while Gladys Berejiklian remains the Premier and Brad Hazzard remains the Minister for Health – they’ve each held their positions for more than four years during which they haven’t lifted a finger to bring about change. 

Not that there seems to be the slightest indication that it would be any different if Jodi McKay became the Premier and Ryan Park became the Minister for Health.

(At times we wonder if the Health Care Complaints Commissioner, Sue Dawson, is acting on orders from the likes of Premier Berejiklian – “Don’t find too many complaints to be justified – otherwise the people of NSW may think we haven’t got a very good health system.” But, at other times, we dismiss this as ridiculous.)

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As we’ve pointed out in previous posts.

(1) Doctors in New South Wales know they don’t need to be concerned in the slightest that any of their patients might complain about any treatment they’ve received from them, or should have received from them.

(2) Doctors in New South Wales know they can almost get away with murder.

(3) Doctors in New South Wales get to know that often those who don’t do such a good job, don’t strive to do their absolute best for their patients, are often better off than those who do, they don’t have to work so hard, they make more money, and so on.

(That’s not to say, that there aren’t doctors in New South Wales, many of them, who try their hardest to do their absolute best for their patients, even though they know that there are others who are not doing this who are better off than they are.)

Readers, that’s how it is in New South Wales.

To us the position is worse than if we didn’t have a Health Care Complaints Commission!  If we didn’t, perhaps doctors would be thinking that if they were slack, that if they didn’t do a very good job, there would certainly be someone their patients could complain to – perhaps their local Member of Parliament, perhaps the Minster for Health, perhaps even the Premier. But they soon learn that they are free to really do whatever they like, because their local Member of Parliament, the Minister for Health, the Premier, AND Sue Dawson, the Health Care Complaints Commissioner, COULDN’T CARE LESS.

One of the things that fascinates us about all this is that, although we’ve been working on  helping ourselves and others to find the best doctors in New South Wales, and to avoid those who perhaps may not be the best, for more than 20 years, never worked so hard, we’ve never quite believed, until the last few days that we’d never get a scrap of help in this from those at the top. This when, all along, it’s been kindergarten stuff to establish that they couldn’t care less, by just sending them emails.

Over the years, we’ve posted so many posts, and sent so many emails, and hardly, if ever, got responses that were at all helpful.

Why are we talking about this at this time? Because we’ve come to believe that it’s all our fault, the fault of us to people – we don’t differentiate enough between those who are the best, and those who may not be there best. The people at the top don’t care because we don’t care. We don’t do the homework, made so much easier by modern technology, that we need to do to make it more likely that we will end up dealing with the best. About which more later.

Some time ago a complaint was made to the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission about Dr Kerrie Meades, Ophthalmologist – one of our readers had been referred to her for help with the more and more severe double vision he was experiencing. The basis of his complaint was that he had spent 3 or 4 hours in her rooms seeing her and her people, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, and had learnt nothing. He claims he was obviously being regarded as a “cash cow.”

And that when he later saw Dr Ross Fitzsimons, another Ophthalmologist, all his problems were solved in quite a short consultation, at a cost of less than $150. In particular, Dr Fitzsimons told him straight away that the practical problems of his double vision could be solved by getting his Optometrist to put prisms in his glasses – not mentioned by anyone in the 3 or 4 hours he spent with Dr Meades and her people, and that when he did this, he says that the change was almost miraculous, that when he had glasses with prisms in them it was almost as if he no longer had double vision.

So did he have a basis for a complaint about Dr Meades?

Ms Sue Dawson, the Health Care Complaints Commissioner didn’t think so. She, herself, told him in an email, “Two doctors having different opinions or action plans about a patient does not necessarily mean that either practitioner’s conduct is unreasonable!!!“

Almost bizarre!!!

A copy of her email can be made available to those interested.

A great deal of work has recently been done to lodge a complaint with the HCCC about Dr Andrew Brooks, Urologist, who’s conduct, we believe, has, in one particular case, been horrible – he recommended and carried out treatment which didn’t help his patient in any way, and caused irreparable damage which will be with him for the rest of his life, it can’t be reversed, for which he charged $3,200 for less than an hours work. But the work that’s been done hasn’t been about Dr Brooks – we know what will happen, eventually someone, perhaps even Commissioner Dawson herself, will advise that there’s no basis for complaint and Brooks will have the last laugh – it’s been to demonstrate once again, to our readers, that, in New South Wales:-

(1) People like Kerrie Meades and Andrew Brooks know that they don’t have to worry about people possibly making complaints about them.

(2) People like Kerrie Meades and Andrew Brooks know that they can almost get away with murder.

(3) People like Kerrie Meades and Andrew Brooks are making more money than the “good guys” like Dr Fitzsimmons. (Why would anyone strive to be good guy, when the “crooks” aren’t working as hard and making more money? People like Brooks must be laughing all the way to the bank, getting $3,200 for less than an hours work, for providing useless and damaging treatment – and knowing they will get away with it.)

(4) AND that Commissioner Sue Dawson doesn’t care, our Premier, Gladys Berejiklian doesn’t care, and our Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard doesn’t care.

As we often say, if any of them ever showed the slightest indication that they DID care, it could make a lot of difference.

Copies of this post will be sent to Premier Berejiklian, Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, and Commissioner Dawson, for their comments. If we hear from any if them, we’ll let our readers know.

A 26 Feb. 2021 update: There has been a delay in the sending of copies of the above post to Premier Berejiklian, Brad Hazzard and Sue Dawson – but they have been sent today. We’ll let you know if we hear from any of them.

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We believe that the way in which the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission is being conducted could be much improved, to put it mildly – which results in the “crooks” in NSW doing better, making more money and so on, than the “good guys,” and many of our health care professionals obviously almost thinking they can get away with murder.

If you Google “NSW Health Care Complaints Commission” you learn that there are 45 Google reviews, (as at 7 Feb, 2021,) – 37 of them are 1 star reviews with many of those providing them complaining that they aren’t able to provide 0 star reviews, there are 2 5 star reviews, one of which doesn’t make any sense, and the other has no content, and the 4 star review has no content either.

Presumably Ms Sue Dawson, the person in charge as the Commissioner, is in a position to improve things, but she’s been the Commissioner for 6 or 7 years and it seems to us that, if anything, things have got worse.

One of our readers reports that a NSW doctor who had performed atrociously for him actually taunted him, saying, “You know that if you had a real reason to complain you’d complain to the HCCC.” He obviously believed that the HCCC wouldn’t help if he did, that he would have the last laugh – and was almost certainly right.

We believe it’s got the point where some people are afraid to go to doctors.

We are in the early stages seeing if our politicians, who, presumably could do something about this, have any interest in the problems. But in the end, it will be about whether we, the people, care.

Send us an email of support to info@questionsmisc.info. You don’t have to provide any of your details, and we’ll never contact you in any way, other than with a thankyou email if you don’t want to be contacted.

We believe that it can be easily established that 98%, perhaps even 99%, of the people who complain to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission about NSW doctors are told they have nothing to complain about, which, to us, raises these concerns.

(1) That it’s an insult to the intelligence of the people of NSW.

(2) More importantly, that it creates a reward system in which the “crooks” are doing better than the “good guys.”

(2) More importantly again, it results in a reward system under which NSW doctors believe they can almost get away with murder.

Some six months ago an email was sent to Ms Sue Dawson, the Health Care Complaints Commissioner, in which the above claim was made, which resulted in us getting a response from Paul Spink, one of Commissioner Dawson’s people, which in turn led to us sending Mr Spink the email shown below.

Having no record of ever getting a response from Mr Spink, we sent a further email to him a couple of days ago, in response to which we got this.

So the email was sent to Ms Robinson on 3 Feb. 2021.

We’ll let you know if we get a response.

One of our readers made a complaint to the NSW Health Care complaints Commission about Dr Kerrie Meades, Ophthalmologist.

He says he had been referred to her for help with the double vision he was experiencing, which was developing to the point where he was a danger to himself and others when driving a car, and if he’d been forced to give up driving a car, it would, for him, have been a disaster.

He spent 3 or 4 hours over a number of days in Dr Meades’s rooms at the cost of several hundred dollars, seeing her, her colleague, Dr Jennifer Sandbach, and a number of her orthoptists, from which he says he got no help at all, learnt nothing. All Dr Meades did was keep saying that the causes of double vision required “extensive investigation” as they could be very serious – no doubt so he would continue being seen by her and her people for as long as possible, so they could collect more fees from him, even though no progress was being made in helping him. Eventually he gave up on Dr Meades and her people and saw another Ophthalmologist, Dr Ross Fitzsimons, who, in the briefest of consultations, at a cost of less than $150, solved all his problems!

In the first 5 minutes, Dr Fitzsimons told him that to solve the practical problems of his double vision he should get his optometrist to put prisms in his glasses, which, when he did, it was like a miracle – with glasses with prisms in them it was as though he didn’t have double vision at all. Of course, Dr Meades and her people should have done the same, in the first 5 minutes, have told him about prisms in glasses, but, he claims that, in the 3 or 4 hours he spent in her rooms it wasn’t mentioned once by anyone. He says he is particularly bitter about this, because if they had, it would have reduced, by a number of months, the time when he was a danger to himself and others when driving a car.

And then, after he had provided him with a the history of his double vision, Dr Fitzsimons told him that it was incredibly unlikely that it was due to anything serious, but if he wanted to make sure, he could have an MRI of his brain, which he did and it was clear.

So, on the one hand, our reader says that 3 or 4 hours of his precious time were spent with Dr Meades and her people at a cost of several hundred dollars, and he wasn’t helped in any way, and on the other hand, in a short consultation with Dr Fitzsimons, at a cost of less than $150, his problems were solved completely.

He says he thought he’d make a complaint about Dr Meades to the Health Care Complaints Commission – just for fun.

When he did, amongst other things, he was told that, “A copy of your complaint was forward to Dr Meades and she has provided a response which is for the Commission’s assessment purposes only.” In other words, he was not going to be given the opportunity to counter anything she said. We would have thought that, at the very least, the Commission would be interested in anything the complainant might say in response to anything the health practitioner might say.

And then, as was to be expected, the HCCC missed the whole point of his complaint.

The point of his complaint was that – Fact 1: he spent 3 or 4 hours seeing Dr Meades and her people, at a cost of several hundred dollars, and got no help with his problems at all, and Fact 2: in complete contrast, he spent less than half an hour with Dr Fitzsimons, at a cost of less than $150, and all his problems were solved.

But his complaint was dismissed – he was told he had nothing to complain about. But he was given some hope? – he was told that he could request a review of this decision if he wanted to, which he did, which, to cut a long story short, resulted in him getting a letter from Commissioner Sue Dawson herself, which can be summed up in this one sentence – “Two doctors having different opinions or action plans about a patient does not necessarily mean that either practitioner’s complaint is unreasonable,” so again his complaint had been dismissed.

So the fact that he’d spent 3 or 4 hours with Dr Meades, at a cost of several hundred dollars, and hadn’t been helped in any way, wasn’t unreasonable, couldn’t be considered as a basis for a complaint!!!.

Ms Dawson’s letter concluded with this paragraph – “I understand that this is not the outcome you were hoping for but I trust that this letter will assist in explaining the basis for the decision.”

Our reader says that, on the contrary, it was exactly the outcome he was expecting, if not hoping for, as it provided further indications as to how COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS the HCCC is, under Commissioner Dawson – information that can be presented to those who may be in a position to do something about it.

As we keep saying, 98%, if not 99%, of the people who submit complaints to the HCCC are told they have nothing to complain about – an insult to their intelligence.

Email us at info@questionsmisc.info.