Roman Hasil and the Whanganui DHB - Health and Disability ...

Health and Disability Commissioner
The NSW Medical Board arranged for an assessment of Dr Hasil by a NSW Medical
Board-nominated psychiatrist on 21 December 2005, and found that Dr Hasil was
working in New Zealand. 9 The Board reported the matter to the Medical Council of New
Zealand. On 9 March 2006, the Medical Council received this information, which was
verified at source and did not indicate that Dr Hasil had any health concerns.
Finally, there are inconsistencies with the references. It is clear that Dr Hasil and the
recruitment agency had difficulty in providing satisfactory references. In his CV, Dr Hasil
nominated Referee B as a referee along with Referee A. Referee B is a consultant
obstetrician and gynaecologist who worked with Dr Hasil at Lismore Base Hospital.
However, the recruitment agency did not supply a reference report from him but from
Referee C, a paediatrician who worked at Lismore Base Hospital. In my view, this
discrepancy in the documentation was obvious. The recruitment agency submitted that,
in total, seven referees had been contacted. However, it is noteworthy that only one of
these references was from an obstetrician and gynaecologist (Referee H) who had
recently worked with Dr Hasil.
Referee B recalls being contacted by a recruitment agent in New Zealand about Dr Hasil
and giving a reference as requested, which he described as “damning”. He said he was
not impressed with Dr Hasil, particularly his attitude. He said he had observed the
Caesarean sections undertaken by Dr Hasil, which were performed satisfactorily, but was
not aware of his gynaecology practice.
Referee B later clarified this by saying that he provided a damning report to a woman
with a foreign (not New Zealand) accent, that the interview took place on a Friday
morning and that the style of questioning was the same as that used in the recruitment
agent’s verbal reference reports obtained from Referee C and Referee A. The interviews
with Referee C and Referee A took place on 27 May 2005 — which was a Friday.
The recruitment agent (for whom English is her second language) initially informed my
staff that she could not recall whether she had contacted Referee B, but later advised that
she did not obtain a reference from him. She said that if the recruitment agency could not
locate a referee, or if a referee provided a “bad” reference (and others provided a good
reference), it is not unusual for her to obtain another reference, as it may be “sour
grapes”. She later clarified that she would only disregard one “bad” reference if they
have three good ones, but will not disregard a single “bad” reference if there are serious
misconduct or behaviour problems. The recruitment agent also explained that if she
received a reference that was adverse to the applicant’s professional conduct, then she
9 The psychiatrist reported on his uncertainty about Dr Hasil’s openness about his consumption of
alcohol at the time of the incident. Dr Hasil said he had a “couple” of beers on the night of the incident.
The psychiatrist noted that such an amount would be unlikely to result in a breathalyser reading of 0.2.
Dr Hasil corrected himself, saying he may have had a couple of glasses of wine as well. The psychiatrist
stated that it was likely that Dr Hasil had consumed more than this. He concluded that Dr Hasil had no
ongoing problems and that the Board proposed to take no further action. The NSW Medical Board
noted that Dr Hasil had been under some stress at the time but that things had resolved.
18 February 2008