CANCER and HEALTH LAW NEWS TOPICS

21.07.06

SWISS drug giant Roche has been accused of breaching the pharmaceutical industry's code of conduct by providing lavish meals to doctors at several of Australia's top restaurants.

In one case, Roche spent more than $65,000 taking more than 200 top cancer specialists and others to dinner at the exclusive Guillaume at Bennelong, inside the Sydney Opera House. The dinner cost more than $200 a head.

Karen McLeod, a former partner of one of those present, has blown the whistle on the lavish wining and dining - a practice that the industry has claimed is a thing of the past.

Ms McLeod said the doctors behaved liked naughty schoolboys. During one conversation, she claimed, they joked about how there seemed to be no limit to the price of bottles of wine that the drug company representatives would buy for them.

She told The Australian she was "disgusted by the gluttony" and that in her view doctors accepting drug company meals was wrong, particularly public hospital specialists making decisions about expensive cancer therapies. Roche's top-selling cancer drug sells for $10,000 per course of treatment.

The Australian Consumers Association said doctors should be held accountable when they were prescribing such high-cost drugs at taxpayers' expense, and should not accept drug company meals.

ACA spokeswoman Viola Korczak said the industry's self-regulatory code was clearly ineffective and governments should step in and regulate drug company interaction with doctors.

Peter Mansfield, from the global drug marketing watchdog Healthy Skepticism, claimed Roche had breached the industry's code requiring "simple and modest" meals, and yesterday he made a formal complaint to Medicines Australia.

After questioning other companies, Dr Mansfield is concerned none may have the capacity to enforce the code, as none have disclosed limits on what they will spend on meals.

Ian Kerridge, an ethicist at the University of Sydney, said "the cost of these events ultimately contributes to the costs of drugs, which is borne by patient directly, or indirectly, through government health budgets".

Source: Ray Moynihan, The Australian online.

12.07.06

AN Austrian man, known as Dr Ozone, is being investigated by Australian police over the deaths of six Perth cancer patients and possibly others in Darwin.

Hellfried Sartori, 67, is being held on charges of fraud and practising medicine without a licence in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Mr Sartori has served two prison terms in the US, in New York state in May 1992 and in Washington DC in July 1998, after administering his ozone treatments, Thai police Lieutenant General Phanuphong Singhara na Ayutthaya said.

The treatment allegedly involves injections of liquid ozone into a patient's veins.

Bangkok's Nation yesterday reported that one Australian cancer patient, Kathleen Preston, had died in a Thai hospital last July. An autopsy report found an excessive amount of potassium in her blood, the report stated.

Ms Preston's death is being investigated by the Northern Territory Coroner, a spokeswoman, Lorelei Fong Lim, said. "The NT Coroner's office is investigating the death of NT resident Kathleen Preston," she said. "It would be inappropriate to speculate or pre-empt any outcome of the investigation."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/aussie-cancer-patient-killed/2006/07/11/1152383741835.html 

10.07.06

TWO Gold Coast women are sueing BreastScreen Queensland for allegedly failing to diagnose their aggressive cancers.

Phillipa Naismith, 52, is dying of cancer while Sandra Harley, 48, has had her left breast removed because of the disease.

Both were diagnosed within months of having mammograms at the state-run BreastScreen service, which gave them clean bills of health.

The women are alleging that  the service should have picked up the cancers from the mammogram results.

If medical negligence was proven, the women have a case for compensation including damages for pain and suffering, loss of expectation of life, loss of earning capacity and medical expenses.

The womens' solicitor has said that women should still have faith in the system and should still attend for breast screens. But if they've got any doubts about the screening or if they do subsequently find a lump that they should then go back for further review.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1683172.htm

06.06.06

Healthy breast removed in error

The patient was admitted to Campbelltown Hospital for a total mastectomy of the left breast, which contained a 2cm malignant tumour.

Her healthy right breast was instead removed as a result of the error on a consent form.

The "dreadful mistake" was discovered by the daughter of the 78-year-old patient after she noticed a drain had been inserted on the right side of her mother's chest.

The elderly woman was forced to endure a second operation later that night to remove the cancerous breast.

Yesterday, the doctor who wrongly completed the admission form appeared before the Medical Tribunal facing a complaint of unsatisfactory professional conduct.

See article by BRAD CLIFTON, Court Reporter: http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,19372720-5001021,00.html

05.06.06

Fears over unqualified staff treating cancer patients

THE lives of pregnant women and cancer sufferers in country Australia are being jeopardised because of specialist shortages in rural hospitals.

A Four Corners report, to be aired tonight on ABC TV, reveals research by the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia which shows that more than a third of country hospitals providing chemotherapy allow unqualified medical staff to treat cancer patients.

Four Corners airs at 8.30 tonight on ABC TV.

See article: Orietta Guerrera, Rural Reporter http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/fears-over-unqualified-staff-treating-cancer-patients/2006/06/04/1149359609109.html