Patel threatened to quit hospital: court

Dr Jayant Patel threatened to deprive the Bundaberg Base Hospital of his
"exceptional" surgical skills after hospital staff informed his patient's mother
that her son was dying, a court has been told.
Giving evidence in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Thursday, nurse Alison Cooper
said Patel had refused to tell James Edward Phillips' mother that her son's
condition was "gravely poor" following an oesophagectomy the surgeon performed in
May 2003.
"(Hospital anaesthetist) Dr Martin Carter and I both asked Dr Patel if maybe, given
the poor prognosis of the gentleman ... whether his next of kin should be advised of
the situation," said Ms Cooper, who worked in the hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
at the time.
"Patel said: `No way. He's going to get up and walk out of here'."
Mr Phillips died later that day, the court was told.
Patel, 60, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Phillips and two other
patients, and the grievous bodily harm of a fourth man.
The charges relate to his time as director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base Hospital
between 2003 and 2005.
Ms Cooper told the court that after they spoke with Patel, Dr Carter had a
conversation with Mr Phillips' mother, who then approached the surgeon to ask about
her son's poor prognosis.
Ms Cooper said she was later blamed for telling Mrs Phillips, and that Patel
threatened to quit his post at the hospital.
"Dr Patel screamed at me later in the day ... literally screamed at me about six
inches away from my face," she said.
"He told me that we had been instructed not to speak to Mrs Phillips about the
condition of her son, that he thought we had gone behind his back.
"And he kept saying things like threatening to leave the Bundaberg Base Hospital if
we kept going behind his back, and then we would be stuffed because the Bundaberg
Base Hospital would lose an exceptionally talented surgeon."
She rejected assertions by the defence that these conversations had not taken place.
"Dr Carter and I both spoke to him (Patel) on a number of occasions," she said.
"Ethically (Mrs Phillips) should have been told."
On Thursday, hospital nurse unit manager Toni Hoffman also gave evidence Patel had,
on occasions, been stubborn about transferring unwell post-operative patients to
Brisbane.
Ms Hoffman recalled Patel threatened to complain to senior regional health
executives in June 2003 after other hospital staff put pressure on him to send
oesophagectomy patient James Grave - who is not the subject of any charge - to
Brisbane.
"He just said that he didn't want his patients transferred to Brisbane," Ms Hoffman
said.
"He just refused to speak to the surgeon in Brisbane to give a handover (of the
patient)."
Ms Hoffman denied clashing with Patel over personal reasons, but said she spoke to
director of medical services Darren Keating on a number of occasions because she was
concerned about the surgeon's patients.
She said she was also concerned the hospital was not equipped to manage a large
volume of patients who had undergone major surgery like Patel was performing.
"There was no personality clash ... we were very concerned for our patients," she said.
"We were very concerned about the level of surgery that was being done."
The trial will continue on Friday.