Seeking justice by blowin' the whistle

Building on from my last blog post, I’ll be discussing the human sources, or better known as whistleblowers; the members of an organisation disclose who disclose ‘illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices (including omissions) under the control of their employers, to persons or organisations who may be able to effect action’ (Near & Miceli 1985 in Tanner & Richardson, 2013, p. 48).

Disgrace former surgeon Dr Jayant Patel. Photo: ABC News

"The behaviour of the surgeon in ICU needs also to be discussed as certain very disturbing scenarios have occurred".

As a case study, I will be debating the Dr Death case from Queensland in 2005 whereby while working as a surgeon at Bundaberg Base Hospital, Dr Jayant Patel was accused of gross negligence and fatal competence after 87 of his patients died (Chandler, 2005). Intensive care unit nurse, Toni Hoffman expressed her concerns about the wrongdoings of Dr Patel whose medical procedures in particular oesophagectomy, resulted in a number of serious complications and as a result a major commission of inquiry was initiated. She stated "the behaviour of the surgeon in ICU needs also to be discussed as certain very disturbing scenarios have occurred".

Here is one of the scenarios outlined in the high commission inquiry:

A screenshot of the high commissions findings (Davies, 2005).

According to Tanner and Richardson, there are three motivations for whistleblowing:

• Seeking justice
• Seeking some form of personal gain
• Were angry or wanted retribution or revenge (2013, p. 51)

Nurse Hoffman’s motivation behind her whistleblower was obviously seeking justice for victims of Dr Patel’s medical negligence and she genuinely desired ‘to correct or stop something that [was] wrong or unjust, regardless of whether this benefits of costs’ her in the process (ibid).

ABC News has compiled a complete timeline of the Dr Death’s Case and can be found here.

Understanding the motivations behind whistleblowers is an important aspect in determining the validity of a source. Fortunately for Nurse Hoffman, she liaised with Queensland Health a number of complaints and this raised eyebrow’s resulting in an investigation.

Since the disgrace of Dr Death, his Australian medical license has been suspended indefinitely and he has been charged with fraud for using an invalid Australian surgical license. The jury could not reach a verdict on other charges and the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions announces it will not proceed with them

Charges dropped include two grievous bodily harm charges, two manslaughter charges, three of fraud, one of attempted fraud, and one medical negligence charge (abc.net.au, 2013).

References

ABC News. (2013). Timeline: Jayant Patel case. [online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-06-29/timeline-of-patel-saga/886774 [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

Chandler, J. (2005). The scandal of 'Dr Death' - General - In Depth - theage.com.au. [online] Theage.com.au. Available at: http://www.theage.com.au/news/General/The-scandal-of-Dr-Death/2005/05/27/1117129900672.html [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

Davies, H. (2005). Commissions of Inquiry Order (No. 2). Queensland Public Hospitals. [online] Brisbane: Queensland Goverment. Available at: http://www.qphci.qld.gov.au/final_report/Final_Report.pdf [Accessed 28 Aug. 2017].

Tanner, S. and Richardson, N. (2013). Journalism research and investigation in a digital world. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.