Surgeon’s $6m claim

A FRENCH surgeon who claims he was forced out of the Townsville Mater Hospital because of unfounded complaints is suing the service and nine surgeons for $6.8 million.

Dr Richard Emery had to return to France in 2014, after he was barred from operating at Townsville’s Mater Private Hospital.

A FRENCH surgeon, who claims he was forced out of a Townsville hospital because of unfounded complaints, is suing a hospital health service and nine surgeons for $6.8 million.

Dr Richard Emery had to return to France in 2014 after he was barred from operating at Townsville’s Mater Private Hospital, where he had performed surgery over six years.

Two former hospital patients, who claim they had to fly to France so the spinal surgeon could operate on them, are also suing for more than $575,000 each.

Dr Emery claims from 2008 onwards he was the subject of audits and investigations arising from complaints by Mater Private Hospital’s surgical peer review “Craft Group”.

His Supreme Court claim says every audit or investigation showed his rates and severity of complications were within normal range.

From November 2013, the hospital restricted Dr Emery’s ability to operate there.

In early 2014, nine Craft Group members told the doctors’ regulator that Dr Emery’s “major clinical complications” were well above an acceptable level.

Dr Emery, who is suing those nine surgeons, claims the notification to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency was not made in good faith, but with the intention of causing him harm.

The Medical Board of Australia then imposed interim conditions that significantly restricted his ability to practise, his claim says.

In May, 2014, Dr Emery was told that he could no longer perform procedures at the hospital. As he was not accredited to operate anywhere else in Australia, in December, 2014, he returned to France, where he has practised since March, 2015.

Dr Emery was later cleared by the board after it was found his complication rates were within acceptable claim says.

He is suing Mater Health Services North Queensland and nine surgeons for compensation for loss and damage, totalling for $6,807,676,

The claim includes his alleged loss of income for five years, losses from selling his Townsville and Cairns rooms at short notice and the cost of relocating to France.

Debra Debel, who had previously been operated on by Dr Emery at the hospital, flew to limits, the

France so he could perform a second more complex surgery on her. The Townsville hospital could not provide Ms Debel with another surgeon who could perform the urgently needed surgery to relieve her pain, the claim says.

Because Dr Emery was the only surgeon willing to perform the surgery, it is claimed that Ms Debel was “forced” to fly to France for the operation.

She is suing the health service and nine surgeons for $595,806.