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‘ We are vindicated ’: deep-sleep GP

Chelmsford doctor wins apology after six-year battle .
Heather Saxena “ THIS chapter in medical history is now
closed . [ John ] Herron and I have always denied wrongdoing and were unfairly maligned for many decades . We are now vindicated .”
Dr John Gill , a GP involved in the controversial Chelmsford deep-sleep therapy program more than 40 years ago , was speaking last week about the end of a multimillion dollar defamation battle with ABC journalist Steve Cannane .
Both Dr Gill and former psychiatrist John Herron had been among a group of doctors at Sydney ’ s Chelmsford Private Hospital in the 1970s , where patients had been sedated with barbiturates for up to 14 days for the treatment of a range of issues , including depression , anxiety and addiction .
The Chelmsford Royal Commission , which ran in the 1980s , subsequently blamed the therapy for the deaths of at least 23 patients . Dr Gill and Mr Herron were not involved in the treatment of all these patients .
But in 2016 , a book called Fair Game : The Untold Story of Scientology in Australia was published and included chapters on the church ’ s role in exposing the treatments used .
Dr Gill and Mr Herron decided to sue , saying the book falsely suggested they had been grossly negligent while working at Chelmsford .
They said it also implied they were responsible for the deaths of a number of their patients and that they had traumatised others by administering deep-sleep therapy without consent .
NEWSPIX
Following an eight-week trial , the Federal Court of Australia ruled in 2020 that the imputations were substantially true and that the doctors had attempted to “ rewrite history ” after the release of the royal commission ’ s damning findings .
“ To subject patients to [ the therapy ] as it occurred at Chelmsford in the 1960s and 1970s was unethical , grossly negligent and involved sustained medical malpractice by reference to the applicable standards at the time ,” Justice Jayne Jagot wrote . The doctors appealed . Mr Herron , who had been deregistered for issues unrelated to Chelmsford , died a few months later , aged in his late 80s . Dr Gill , then aged 79 , continued the legal battle .
The Full Federal Court threw out the decision , finding the original judge had relied on the evidence given to the royal commission by medical experts who were now dead .
Among their key claims was that the deep-sleep therapy had an “ abnormal ” 1.7-2.3 % mortality rate .
But the appeal court concluded : “ The facts or assumptions upon which the doctors based their opinions were , for the most part , not disclosed or made sufficiently clear in their reports [ to the commission ].”
“ Nor was the reasoning process which lay behind the opinions exposed … In some cases , the documents or other material relied upon by the doctors was unclear , unavailable or not in evidence .”
‘ The royal commission was a flawed and biased process .’
— Dr John Gill
It added : “ It was , in all the circumstances , not possible to assess or determine the extent to which the opinions expressed by the doctors [ who submitted evidence to the commission ] were based on their specialised knowledge , as required by section 79 of the Evidence Act .”
The appeal court also stressed that the evidence of “ dead experts ” had never been tested by cross-examination during the commission either , and it had not been possible for Dr Gill and Mr Herron to cross-examine them during their defamation trial given the experts were no longer alive .
Last week , the defamation case came to an end .
The Full Federal Court published orders entering judgement
in favour of Dr Gill after the parties reached a confidential agreement , which included an apology from HarperCollins .
“ HarperCollins sincerely apologises to Dr Gill for the distress and harm which he and his family have suffered as a result of the allegations made against Dr Gill in the book , and it withdraws them ,” it said .
The court also ordered that Steve Cannane be permanently restrained from republishing the eight defamatory imputations made in his book , including that Dr Gill had :
• Continued to use deep-sleep treatment on his patients despite the number of deaths it had caused
• Falsified death certificates
• Lied to his patients ’ families about how ill the patients were and denied those families visitation
• That his gross negligence as a psychiatrist caused the death of many of his patients
• Engaged in sustained medical malpractice and abuse of his patients Dr Gill said he was “ very pleased ” with the outcome . “ The royal commission into Chelmsford Private Hospital in the late 1980s was a significantly flawed and biased process that resulted in a series of unfair findings being made .” Mr Cannane said : “ I wrote this book to expose the truth about abuses inside the Church of Scientology .
“ Little did I know that it would end in a lengthy legal battle with someone who was not a Scientologist and was mentioned by name only once ...
“ However , I cannot expect HarperCollins to provide a limitless supply of funds ... in a case that has dragged on for six years and has cost millions of dollars .”

Why doctors have yet to sign the fax machine ’ s death certificate

Paul Smith THE dodo is not dead .
Young people look at you dazed and confused when you mention sending a fax . Like the Betamax cassette and Microsoft ’ s Clippy , it rarely trends on TikTok .
And from the end of the month , it will no longer trend with My Aged Care as the Federal Government declares that faxes will not be accepted .
But love or hate it , the fax is still as much a part of contemporary medical technology as PET scans and surgical robots , it seems .
We surveyed around 200 doctors in the aftermath of the My Aged Care fax ban announcement , with 93 % declaring that the fax machine still had an active and productive role at their practice .
Of those , more than 70 % said it was being used daily to send and receive . [*] The reason ? “ We can ’ t turn it off .” It was not clear whether this was because the fax in question had evolved AI in its resistance against obsolescence .
One respondent articulated the more likely reason : “ Faxes will remain as the lowest-common-denominator way of sending documents .” “ It ’ s crap , but it works !” This was mainly because non-GP specialists
‘ It ’ s crap , but it works !’
still relied on the technology for referrals — at least this was what the GPs who took part said .
Also , hospitals — which love to spend cash on any kind of machine that goes ping — apparently have not reached escape velocity when it comes to 1960s communication technology .
“ We still haven ’ t developed a viable e- referral system ,” one GP said . “ Two weeks ago , I tried to refer a child to the surgical clinic at The Children ’ s Hospital at Westmead .
“ I was asked to send the referral by email or fax .”
Some readers will remember the brave pronouncement from Tim Kelsey , the high-profile and high-paid boss brought over from the UK to run the Australian Digital Health Agency and deliver on the wonders of its My Health Record .
Before he quit and went home , he declared in 2017 that his agency would render the fax extinct within five years .
There is some irony in the fact that doctors still rate the usefulness of the fax an average of 3.5 out of five stars , compared with the 2.2 stars they award the $ 2 billion ( and counting ) My Health Record system .
Yet despite this , many comments were variations of “ please abandon the fax ”.
“ Fax technology is DEAD . If we expect information to be connected to the individual patient and available at all times for clinical support / help , then the entire profession needs to archive the fax and join the rest of the world in the 21st century ,” someone said .
But still , only 30 % said the machine would be obsolete before their own career came to an end . [*] Disclaimer : The results were susceptible to selection bias given the AusDoc survey was run online .

Semaglutide ‘ still in short supply ’

Rachel Carter SEMAGLUTIDE could remain in short supply until the end of the year despite increased stock , the TGA has warned , amid concerns a rise in off-label prescribing for weight loss could spark another shortage .
The regulator ’ s shortage listing for the GLP-1 receptor agonist was due to expire on 30 June , but this has been extended until 31 December following advice from the drug ’ s sponsor .
At the same time , the TGA has relaxed its previous advice to prescribers against initiating new patients on the drug , with those who meet the criteria and have not previously received semaglutide ( Ozempic ) now able to start treatment .
But Dr Gary Deed , chair of the RACGP Specific Interests Diabetes group , said he would not feel confident starting new patients on the medication just yet .
“ This is my opinion , but I am not certain I could guarantee that the supply availability to that patient would not be interrupted before the end of this year , so I still have concerns ,” he told Australian Doctor .