NEWS 3
ausdoc. com. au 11 APRIL 2025
NEWS 3
Taser cop escapes jail term
AAP A POLICE officer has been spared prison for what a judge described as his terrible mistake of fatally tasering a great-grandmother with dementia.
The Supreme Court of NSW sentenced former senior constable Kristian White to 425 hours of community service as part of his twoyear community corrections order, after finding him guilty of the manslaughter death of 95-year-old Clare Nowland.
The 35-year-old fired his taser at the elderly woman after being called to the Yallambee Lodge aged care home in Cooma in the early hours of Wednesday, 17 May 2023.
Mrs Nowland— who was frail, weighed 47kg and could only move slowly with the aid of a walker— was carrying a knife.
When she refused to put the knife down, White said,“ Nah, bugger it,” and fired his taser at her chest, causing her to fall heavily and hit her head.
During his trial, it emerged that he had fired his taser within three minutes of seeing Mrs Nowland at the home.
In handing down his decision, Justice Ian Harrison found White had made a“ terrible mistake” but that his crime fell at the lower end of seriousness when compared with other manslaughter cases.
The firing of the taser was unlawful, dangerous and resulted from White’ s misreading or misunderstanding of the situation, the judge said.
“ A frail and confused 95-year-old woman in fact posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance,” he told the packed courtroom.
Mrs Nowland’ s death was serious, Justice Harrison said, as he acknowledged the grief and anger her family
felt while struggling to cope with the enormity of her passing.
“ The complete and utter frustration and despair exhibited by her family in the circumstances is easy to understand when things could
have so easily been handled better,” he said.
However, White was only caught up in the incident as a police officer who had been lawfully called to the care facility, the judge noted.
“ He was required to resolve the situation … and could not have chosen to do nothing,” he said.
There were tears by members of Mrs Nowland’ s family, while the former officer stood expressionless as his sentence was handed down.
In a letter to Mrs Nowland’ s family provided to the court, White
‘ It was a terrible mistake, but not as serious as other manslaughter cases.’
expressed his sincere apologies and regret over what had happened.
“ I take full responsibility for my actions. I felt and still feel horrible for what happened,” he wrote.
“ I do not expect you to take my apology as a request for forgiveness and I understand that you suffer greatly.”
AAP
Former senior constable Kristian White fronts court.
The former officer, who lost his job with the NSW Police Force following his conviction, has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder due to the incident and will have to move from the small town of Cooma because of the anger against him there.
Crown prosecutors said they would appeal White’ s sentence, describing it as inadequate.
Mrs Nowland’ s daughter, Leslie Lloyd, told Nine News:“ He has taken a life— there should be some consequences for that.”
White was removed from the police force in December, but he has launched legal action for a review of that decision.
Registrar research below par
Mohana Basu MANDATORY research projects in specialist training programs may waste registrars’ time and add to the global pit of junk research, says GP and evidence-based medicine expert Professor Paul Glasziou.
In a paper in The Medical Journal of Australia, researchers surveyed around 350 anonymous doctors and found that registrars often spent their private time completing their research projects, yet most of
‘ There’ s all this junk.’
what was published had a high risk of bias and poor reporting of results or methods.
Professor Glasziou, one of the paper’ s co-authors, told Australian Doctor that GP training supported registrars via mentoring and seminars on research.
But for other specialist trainees, it was sometimes“ the blind leading the blind”.
“ People that don’ t know about research review them. And they get published,” he said.
Professor Glasziou co-wrote a 2009 paper that concluded 85 % of research funding was avoidably wasted due to investigating settled questions, poor methodology, flawed analysis, or failing to get published.
It meant an estimated $ 100 billion a year in medical research funding was wasted globally.
“ There’ s all this junk, and people can’ t find the good research.”
Med J Aust 2025; 17 Mar.
Doctors protest‘ shock’ jailing of GP activist
Staff writers AROUND 150 people, including fellow medical colleagues, have attended a waterside vigil calling for the freedom of imprisoned GP Dr Patrick Hart.
The UK doctor is currently serving 12 months in Chelmsford Prison
Supporters of Dr Patrick Hart. after he smashed and painted 16 ExxonMobil petrol pumps in an anti-fossil fuel protest three years ago.
Dr Romola Pocock and Dr Emily Pollard spoke about his patients’“ shock and sadness” at his plight. His case has drawn attention from the UN Special Rapporteur on environmental defenders, Michel Forst.
Calling for Dr Hart’ s release, Mr Forst argued the damage caused to the pumps was minimal for a company generating $ 145 billion in annual revenue.
“ I fail to see how the imprisonment and potential suspension of a medical practitioner for having engaged in peaceful environmental protest in his private life is either proportionate or serves any legitimate public purpose.”
Writing from his prison cell earlier this year, Dr Hart told Australian Doctor he regrets nothing, but finds prison a bit boring.
Costs of urgent care clinics
FROM PAGE 1 evaluation cannot draw conclusions about the concerns expressed from some GPs that Medicare UCCs will interfere with established relationships between GPs and their patients and attract patients who do not have urgent care needs,” the report said.
The evaluation claimed that the UCCs were averting an estimated 334,000 ED presentations a year, saving the government $ 368 per UCC presentation.
But this was also self-reported data based on patients’ responses to questions about whether they would have gone to ED if the care clinic had not been available.
The report said that some urgent care staff had also filled in the
Fewer than half had after-hours X-ray access.
responses, apparently on behalf of patients.
In terms of measuring whether EDs were less busy as a result of the clinics, it said there were too few data to tell.
A key contractual requirement for the UCCs is that they should have X-ray either onsite or easily accessible“ across all hours of operation”, as well as ultrasound and CT access for most hours and“ timely” access to pathology.
But the report showed that fewer than half of UCCs had X-ray access after 6pm on weekdays or any X-ray access on Sundays.
“ Recruitment of VR GPs … is a significant and ongoing challenge for Medicare UCC providers, particularly in regional and rural areas,” it added. Finally, it said that only 68 % of urgent care presentations involved a clinical handover to the patient’ s regular GP despite 89 % of patients saying they had one.
The publication of the interim evaluation follows loud complaints from doctors about the government rapidly rolling out up to 137 UCCs, at a potential $ 1 billion cost, based on little evidence that they were worth the money.
Patients attending Medicare urgent care clinics
Condition type
No. of patients
Acute injury 103,100( 26 %)
Acute injury + other condition
2100( 0.5 %)
Acute illness 247,500( 63 %)
Acute illness + other condition
Acute exacerbation
Acute exacerbation + other condition
Follow-up appointment
2000( 0.5 %)
11,200( 3 %)
26( 0 %)
4200( 1 %)
Other 21,800( 6 %)
Total 392,000( 100 %)