Drunk doc barges into patient’s room

A Waikato Hospital doctor arrived drunk in a patient’s room at 4am on Saturday and started calling him ‘‘a faggot’’.

Despite being woken by the intrusion, the patient, Robert Pere Williams, 22, took both video and voice recordings of the junior doctor, who seemed upset about Williams’ disease, cystic fibrosis.

The doctor, whom Fairfax has chosen not to name, told Williams he was stressed and upset because Waikato Hospital was so understaffed. He threatened to kill himself.

Williams, of Gisborne, is a regular patient in the respiratory ward at Waikato Hospital.

The doctor, in the ramblings that Williams recorded, talks about these regular visits and the treatment Williams receives from other medical personnel as well as himself on the ward.

Waikato DHB chief executive Nigel Murray said the DHB took these allegations seriously.

‘‘Although we have not seen this video, we are grateful to [Fairfax] for sharing the name of the doctor with us,’’ he said.

‘‘We are urgently contacting this member of staff so we can take action and offer the appropriate support.’’

Just hours after the visit, Williams contacted Fairfax outraged that a doctor could behave so unprofessionally and he says he will be demanding compensation from the DHB.

‘‘He was super pissed,’’ Williams said, ‘‘and crying and telling me all about my case and how he had been thinking about it all day.

‘‘Clearly he shouldn’t be a doctor if he finds it so hard dealing with one case.

‘‘Why is he worried about a patient dying? I have some pretty big concerns about Waikato Hospital now.’’

New Zealand Resident Doctors’ Association national secretary Dr Deborah Powell said yesterday it was not appropriate behaviour for a doctor, but said the doctor was showing signs of a mental breakdown.

‘‘They are under a lot of stress, Waikato Hospital is under a lot of stress as well,’’ Powell said.

‘‘It is a district health board that is under stress left, right and centre, it would be fair to say. Waikato is one of our keep-an-eye-on-it district health boards, so, yeah, I’m afraid these are the human consequences of not taking care of the psychological needs of people.’’

This incident highlights the need for all aspects of health and safety to be prioritised, she said.

Cystic fibrosis is a progressive, genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and limits the ability to breathe over time. In people with CF, a defective gene causes a thick build-up of mucus in the lungs, pancreas and other organs.

People with the disease rarely live past their 30s.

Williams said it was not unusual for staff to wake him during the night to take blood and make other checks, so it was not until Williams realised how drunk the doctor was that he knew anything out of the ordinary was happening.

Williams took the step of recording the entire interaction because he thought no-one would believe him if he didn’t. Williams has gang associations and served two-and-a-half years in prison for aggravated robbery. He says he has served out his parole for that offence.

He said the doctor went on about how the hospital was understaffed and how he thought about hanging himself.

Williams’ biggest concern is that he isn’t going to get the care he needs to stay alive. ‘‘Without this care, I would die within a month.’’

Williams has been under the care of Dr Janice Wong, a consultant at the hospital, since he was 12. He said the pair quite often don’t see eye to eye, but he had a lot of respect for her. On Friday, Williams had told the medical staff to f... off and come back in 10 minutes. Williams said he often did that. His emotions are up and down because of dealing with a terminal illness. Williams said he went to the media rather than the DHB because the mere fact the doctor arrived in the early hours of the morning showed him there was something seriously wrong with the hospital. – Fairfax NZ