It's amazing what you can end up with as a medical specialist in an Australian public hospital

No wonder around 40% of Australians have private medical cover

Health authorities are investigating 10 serious complaints of medical negligence and sexual assault at a northern NSW hospital by an overseas-trained obstetrician and gynaecologist living in a homeless shelter in Surry Hills. Roman Hasil's NSW medical registration was suspended in February after a damning report by New Zealand health authorities found he had botched a quarter of female sterilisations in 2005 and 2006 and drank on the job.

But the Herald has learnt that 10 former patients at Lismore Base Hospital - where he worked from June 2001 to March 2005 - lodged complaints about him with the Health Care Complaints Commission between February and May this year. Police also confirmed this week that it investigated complaints from two former patients of alleged assault, which it referred to the NSW Medical Board.

The complaints commission confirmed this week that it was investigating that Dr Hasil, who trained in the Czech Republic but was registered here despite a history of alcohol abuse, and despite being jailed in Singapore for threatening his second wife, Rose Doyle, with a knife. His third wife, Sally Hasil, also alleged on NZ television last week that he bashed her several times and broke her ribs.

Dr Hasil failed the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' assessments four times.

The Herald has also learnt that a New Zealand barrister, John Rowan, QC, is preparing legal action against Dr Hasil on behalf of up to 30 women for botched operations at Wanganui District Hospital. Dr Hasil, who is staying at Edward Eager Lodge, told the Herald he was unaware of any patient complaints against him from Lismore and denied assaulting anyone. "Of course it's not [true]. I became depressed. I can't work. I'm on medication and this must stop," he said.

A spokesman for North Coast Area Health Service said that after publicity on the NZ inquiry, 10 patients had "raised concerns regarding care provided by Dr Hasil at Lismore Base Hospital", which had been referred to the complaints commission and the medical board.

However, Lismore hospital failed for five years to address the complaint of one woman, Connie Scholl. Her complaint, in September 2003, detailed shocking allegations of abuse at the hands of Dr Hasil while he stitched her after giving birth in 2002 at Lismore hospital, leaving her with "weeks of pain and a year of nightmares". In a statement to the complaints commission in May, Ms Scholl said Dr Hasil called her a "horse woman" after she kicked him in the face because he was stitching her vaginal and anal area without anaesthetic.

"As Dr Hasil was getting up off the ground I heard him say to the midwives, 'stirrup the bitch'. it was also at this time that Dr Hasil said to me, 'you Australian women don't know how to have babies'," the statement said. It alleged he forcefully put his hand on her vagina and said, "Who is the boss now?" Ms Scholl told the Herald this week she felt "tortured and traumatised" and took years to recover physically and emotionally. She made a formal statement to police in March.

In June the chief executive of the North Coast Area Health Service, Chris Crawford, sent a written apology to Ms Scholl that her 2003 complaint "was not properly investigated".

Another former patient, Tracey Robson, is considering suing Lismore Base Hospital after her daughter Chloe was born with cerebral palsy in August 2002, despite a normal pregnancy and heartbeat just hours before the birth. In a letter to the hospital last March Ms Robson described the caesarean delivery as "very rough". "A lot more pressure was used to deliver Chloe compared to the birth of my twins [also by caesarean]. I believe Dr Roman Hasil is responsible for Chloe having cerebral palsy," she wrote. Within 15 hours, Chloe was having seizures and was transferred to intensive care at Mater Mothers Hospital in Brisbane. Ms Robson said she decided to complain after reading a letter in The Northern Star in Lismore from another woman, Jodie Phillips, who said Dr Hasil had left her "traumatised and scarred for life".

The NZ Health and Disability Commissioner, Ron Paterson, said Dr Hasil had a "chequered history" in Australia from 1996 to 2005. His report also alleged he removed the ovaries of a woman without her knowledge.

Ms Doyle, who lives in Shanghai, told NZ television's One News last week that Dr Hasil left nooses on the bedside table and threatened her with a 30centimetre carving knife. "He said, 'I will kill you and cut you up into little pieces and nobody will find you and I will sell your ovaries on the blackmarket'. I was literally terrified for my life."

His third wife, Sally Hasil, with whom he later lived in Hobart for 12 years, told the TV station he repeatedly bashed her after drinking binges. "On one occasion I was left with four broken ribs. I had strangulation marks, I had a beaten face," she said. His ex-girlfriend, Sally Hock, said in the five months he lived with her in Ebenezer outside Sydney this year, she became frightened of him because he was "obsessed with knives" and went on drinking binges.

Queensland health authorities have reviewed the cases of the 17 patients Dr Hasil treated while working at Rockhampton Hospital for 3« weeks in December 2006 and January 2007 and found two had "an unexpected outcome or deviation from standard practice". It has referred them to the Queensland Medical Board.

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Vegemite produces billionth jar



The one billionth jar of Vegemite has gone down the production line, proving that Australians really do enjoy it for breakfast, lunch and tea. Since hitting Australian shelves in the 1920s, the salty yeast spread has been popular not only on sandwiches, toast and biscuits, but also in soups and casseroles.

Among the people who gathered at Kraft's manufacturing plant in Port Melbourne to mark the occasion of the one billionth jar were two of the girls from the original Happy Little Vegemites television commercial. When it first went to air in 1959, Margaret Hole and Trisha Cavanagh were just school-aged children. Nearly 50 years on, they still have fond memories of their first television advertisement. "It was very exciting for us as kids in the school holidays to be making an ad," said Ms Cavanagh. "Who would have thought that ad would still be popular today?"

Rodney Alsop, who is the grandson of Kraft Walker Cheese Company Australia founder, Fred Walker, said it was "amazing" that a billion jars had been produced. "Australians really love their Vegemite. Around the world they may not be so keen on it, but it is one of those things which is an Australian icon."

Christina Siciliano, who worked at Kraft for 31 years as a librarian, has studied the history of Vegemite closely. "It's part of the Australian ethos, the spirit of Australia, and that's what makes it special," she said.

Victorian Premier John Brumby said he woke up this morning to a slice of toast with honey, and another with Vegemite. "What began as a breakfast spread has become an international icon," [Not so sure about that!] Mr Brumby said. "It's a great Victorian and Australian success story."

According to Kraft, Australians spread about 1.2 billion serves of Vegemite on toast, bread or biscuits every year. A Vegemite jar, containing 22 and 18 carat gold, has been created to commemorate the event and will go on tour throughout the country.

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Hospital waiting list blows out

State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg says the number of people waiting more than eight hours for a public hospital bed has doubled since 2003-04. Citing leaked data, Mr Springborg described it as a "phenomenal blow-out" in access block - the delay experienced by emergency room patients who need admission to an inpatient bed.

The Queensland Health Emergency Department Access Block tables, which the Opposition claims are unpublished, show that in 2003-04, 15 per cent of people had to wait more than eight hours for a bed. In 2007-08, the figure had blown out to 31 per cent.

The data on 21 major public hospitals suggests the problem is particularly bad in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, where 31 per cent of patients experienced access block in 2007-08 compared to three per cent in 2003-04. At Nambour Hospital, on the Sunshine Coast, 42 per cent were affected in 2007-08, up from 16 per cent in 2003-04.

Mr Springborg said the Government was failing to keep pace with growth. "Since the Beattie/Bligh Government came to power in Queensland over 10 years ago, the number of public hospital beds in Queensland has actually reduced from 10,800 to about 10,300," he said. "There has been a reduction of almost 600 public hospital beds in Queensland despite the fact that the Queensland population has grown by almost one million in that time. "It should be of no surprise to anyone that people can't get through our emergency departments into a bed if the beds aren't there."

A recent study by the Australian College of Emergency Medicine showed a 20 to 30 per cent excess mortality rate caused by access block and emergency room overcrowding, Mr Springborg said. "By 2003 figures, this is 1,300 patients, on the figures which are available to us now, it may be as many as 1,700 Queenslanders, (who) are losing their lives unnecessarily each year because the state Labor government ... hasn't been able to provide proper care and attention in our emergency departments," he said.

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No mercy even for the littlies

Fat phobics want to harass 3-year-olds

COMPULSORY health checks at daycare centres will be considered to target Queensland's spiralling obesity epidemic, Health Minister Stephen Robertson says. The measure is one being considered by the State Government as it targets preventative lifestyle diseases - smoking, obesity, alcohol and sun exposure - which are clogging the state's health care system and costing almost $5 million in funding annually.

Mr Robertson said details on how such a plan would be carried out had not yet been discussed but it was hoped parents could be given information about warning signs of bad health in their children. "We haven't decided how we're going to provide for greater screening of our young people," he said today. "I want to look at a range of options but compulsion should always be the last measure that you look at. "Education is always preferred but I want to look at the best ways to get these messages through and change some unfortunate behaviours."

He said Queensland had some of the nation's highest rates of obesity, smoking and sun exposure and individuals had to start taking responsibility. The Government had set the target of making Queensland the healthiest state, he said. But it could not "sit down with families on a Friday night when they watch the footy and order the pizza".

Mr Robertson said it was "frightening" how many children were being affected by the avoidable and chronic disease Type 2 diabetes because of bad diets and inactive lifestyles. "That's a terrible indictment on us as a community and we need to take some drastic steps to turn that around," he said. But the Health Minister said he disagreed with another suggestion put forward of a user-pays health system for the obese.

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