Prakash Report Release

Health Minister Bill English said today the report he had received from Good Health Wanganui about complaints made by GP Dr Prakash confirmed his view that the complaints amounted to differences of clinical opinion and did not warrant the attention they had received.

"Doctors will always have different views about how patients should be managed, but internal clinical disputes should be sorted out among the professionals concened. Political pressure on the Minister to intervene is an unnecessary and inappropriate way to deal with these sorts of situations.

"The GP raised these issues through political channels without the courtesy of discussing them with the hospital doctors whose patient management he has publicly criticised. In the case of the amputee, Dr Prakash had not personally seen the patient and made his allegations based on second-hand information.

"Clinical staff at Wanganui Hospital are understandably upset and angry at the way these complaints have been handled. I understand that other Wanganui GPs are also concerned that the publicity reflects on them and the hospital they work with successfully.

"The staff in our hospitals work extremely hard to provide a quality level of care for their patients. On occasions there are issues which need to be investigated and I think we have an open system which provides a number of channels through which complaints can properly be made.

"On this occasion a telephone call would have sufficed. I do not think this required a Ministerial review," said Mr English.