GSD Health Failures Revealed

Senior St Bernard's doctor alleges shock shortcomings in patients' treatment

Gibraltar's Health Authority seems to have been seriously mismanaged by its director and recent GSD Ministers of Health, leading to serious short-comings in the treatment of patients, to plummeting morale, and to incidents which in Britain would have led to the dismissal or striking off from the professional registers of the medical staff involved.  These shocking revelations have been made in an affidavit sworn to by a senior doctor on the hospital staff, who also claims to speak on behalf of several junior doctors.

In a five-page document the doctor  paints a picture of serious incompetence, apparent favouritism, and employment as specialist surgeons of staff who allegedly are inexperienced in their claimed specialities. As a result of shortcomings, it is alleged there is increasing pressure on junior doctors - many of whom are too scared to protest because they fear for their jobs - while, on the other side of the coin the Anaesthetics Department is expensively over-staffed.

The doctor's claims point not only to a raw deal for patients, but also a poor deal for Gibraltar's taxpayers whose cash is not buying the health care they deserve.

His statement, outlining a chronicle of ills and failures of which he claims to have documentary proof, is scathing about some senior appointments and damns the heavy-handed methods of the GHA's Chief Executive Dr D. MacCutcheon and his failure to investigate a string of complaints from patients, their relatives, and doctors on the staff of St Bernard's. He also alleges that some recent deaths of patients might have been avoided had they been given the correct professional care.

"Gibraltar is becoming a safe heaven for failed consultants in UK," he alleges.  One had  never worked as a consultant but nonetheless was carrying out procedures other than total knee replacements. And though some  consultants had "committed very serious mistakes" these were ignored by MacCutcheon.

"Last week a Spanish female doctor, who is neither working nor even registered with the Gibraltar Medical Council, was allowed to perform a knee surgery on a patient," he claims in  reinforcement of his allegation, and adds that some  consultants are employed without checking their references. 

A so-called "key hole surgery expert" left a young women with life-long problems after cutting her CBD (the duct which brings bile from the liver to the small intestine), he claims.  Operations requiring a multi-disciplined approach  are being carried out locally in almost every complicated case that would normally be sent to other specialised centres  in UK or Spain so putting patients' lives at risk. 

F-WORD HUMILIATION

 The same surgeon is alleged to have humiliated a junior female medical doctor "by using the four-letter F-word twice in front of other doctors and ITU staff so that she ended up in tears".  In a "so called rescue action" the consultant's colleagues pressurised the junior doctor not to report the incident.  "Dr.MacCutcheon turned a deaf ear to it". 

"A similar incident happened in theatre which was reported to the administration," the statement says.  "One of the anaesthetists was involved in advising the nurse to give feeding through the wrong tube and the patient, who had already had a few operations during the same admission, was operated in emergency" but  later died.

"Such is the foresight of the Chief Executive that he employed six anaesthetists for the so called ‘24-hour cover of ITU on site'," he claims.  "No doubt they cover the ITU & A/E.  At times ITU beds may be full of medical and surgical patients but none of them are under their care.  On average they may be covering one or two patients and all the cardio vascular, respiratory and renal problems will be sorted out among medical and surgical teams. 

They have a further luxury of a seventh Locum consultant to cover their holidays and another Asian doctor is working for free.  Two further consultants from Spain run a regular pain clinic.  All in all they are ten at present and one can imagine the amount of money spent to run a small department in a population of 30,000".  Satisfactory cover could have been obtained by employing two consultants specialised in pain.

"Nowhere in UK or Ireland, the head of department of A/E is an anaesthetist.  It has either its own consultant or in a small hospital like St. Bernard's it is run by an orthopaedic surgeon or a physician.  Although the A/E cover is provided round the clock, unfortunately none of the junior doctors is capable of performing minor procedures such as management of a fracture, reducing a dislocated joint, carrying out small surgical procedures for instance, as incision and drainage of abscess and even the stitches - tasks which  are routinely done by the A/E doctors in UK & Ireland. 

"This has created extra load to the general surgical junior doctors in particular.  Their work is neither acknowledged nor appreciated by the administration"