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

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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
Opinion 07HDC03504 would advise the Medical Council and withdraw the application. If the adverse comments related only to personality differences, then the reference would be forwarded to the Medical Council. I am satisfied that Referee B provided a “damning” telephone reference to the recruitment agent, and that the reference was disregarded — it was not documented nor reported to the DHB or the Medical Council. I have also noted other inaccuracies in the documentation prepared by the recruitment agency. For example, Dr Hasil’s referee, Referee C, is incorrectly noted as being from Royal Hobart Hospital on the Verbal Reference Report. In the reference section of the application for registration, three referees are listed — Referee C, Referee A and Referee I. However, Referee I and Referee A are one and the same person (using the first name and surname of one referee). 10 While this section appears to have been completed by the recruitment agent, Dr Hasil signed the application. Also, the references provided to the Medical Council were less than impressive. MONITORING OF DR HASIL Staffing On Tuesday 2 August 2005 Dr Hasil commenced work at Whanganui DHB. Dr Hasil was appointed as a medical officer and placed on the on-call roster. The duty roster shows that from the week commencing 8 August 2005 Dr Hasil shared the on-call duty roster with Dr B, Dr A and a third consultant. The first weekend he was on call appears to be 14–16 October 2005. Although initially weekend duty was 1 in 4, the frequency increased to 1 in 2 as the number of consultants in the department decreased. The DHB confirmed that Dr Hasil was operating without direct supervision by 16 September 2005. The gynaecology timetable from the third week in March 2006 indicates that Dr Hasil had an antenatal clinic on Tuesday mornings, gynaecology outpatient clinics on Wednesday afternoons, family planning clinics on Thursday afternoon, and theatre on Friday. Dr Hasil was usually on call on Wednesdays. The department staffing levels dropped considerably in 2006. By March 2006 there was a critical shortage of clinical staff. 11 This placed increased pressure on the remaining clinicians working in the department — namely Dr A and Dr Hasil. They did the on-call duties that Dr B could not cover, so they were on call on a 1 in 2 basis when Dr B was on leave. Dr Hasil reported that he worked between 90 and 138 hours per week at this time. Dr A recalls that “Dr Hasil was always keen to do extra on-call duties because of the extra remuneration”. He further noted that “the 90–130 hours per week Dr Hasil claims to have been working relate mostly to on call hours, most of which are not actually worked. Dr Hasil was never asked to increase his clinical load in any other 10 In response to my provisional opinion, the recruitment agency expressed regret for this error and stated that the error could not possibly have had a bearing on the outcome of Dr Hasil’s application for employment. 11 The third consultant retired in late 2005, and Dr B took extended leave from March to July 2006 as a result of an injury. February 2008 19
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Roman Hasil and the Whanganui DHB - Health and Disability ...

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