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NEWS 3
‘ I was scared but it was the right thing to do ’
Dr Dinesh Palipana on turning whistleblower over Queensland ’ s only spinal unit .
Carmel Sparke THE place where Dr Dinesh Palipana was taken to rebuild his life after a catastrophic car accident paralysed him from the chest down was a place where patients were sometimes left to lie in their own faeces .
He was , as you would expect , already struggling to come to terms with what had happened to him .
But for seven months , he lived in the
‘ Things had not changed . That is what prompted me to speak out .’
— Dr Dinesh Palipana dingy , cramped and depressing confines of Princess Alexandra Hospital ’ s spinal unit in Brisbane , sharing a room with three other patients who were also going through the worst life can offer . “ It was so hard ,” he tells 6minutes . “ My mum came every day , but just that environment — it was dark , and it was awful .
“ You would maybe spend an hour in physiotherapy , another hour in occupational therapy and the rest of your time in this shared room and bathroom .
“ Sometimes , the bathrooms were filthy : human waste was left in there .
“ It was an old building and had not been refurbished for a long , long time .”
He endured ; he survived . He eventually left and , as is well known , recovered to the point of returning to medical school , graduating and building a career as a doctor .
Thirteen years on , however , Dr Palipana learnt from more recent patients that conditions in Queensland ’ s only spinal unit had barely changed .
He began first by writing a letter to the Minister for Health and Aged Care about his concerns . It did not seem to go anywhere .
But a few months later , in April , the media started running stories on the unit .
It spoke to him about what he had discovered and also spoke to patients , who described incidents in which they had been left to lie in their own faeces or sit naked in front of other patients .
One woman in her early 50s told The Courier-Mail : “ When you are paralysed , you have no control over bowels . I was often just rolled over into my own waste .
“ It felt like a world war prisoner camp . Miserable .”
Another past patient , who was in the unit as a young man following a motorcycle accident , said he too had been treated harshly .
“ Patients are at their lowest ebb and feel like they have no voice ,” he said .
The Queensland Government quickly ordered a review .
Four months on , it has now announced it will spend $ 20 million on upgrading the unit and improving staffing .
Dr Palipana said going public was a tough decision for him , especially given his current employer , Queensland Health , runs the facility .
“ It was difficult , but for people going through the hardest time of their lives with a spinal cord injury , it is a very , very difficult environment to be in ,” Dr Palipana said .
“ I just kept hearing stories from patients about the challenges they were facing . Things had not changed . That is what prompted me to speak out .
“ I was pretty nervous about it because I knew there was this risk to my career . I was scared about what would happen , but obviously it was the right thing to do .”
The 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year said he had mainly had positive feedback and encouraged other doctors to advocate on behalf of their patients if they felt there was a need .
“ At the end of the day , as doctors , we are here for the people ,” Dr Palipana said .
“ I know there is a risk to ourselves , sometimes to our careers , but I really want to encourage doctors to take that risk because , if it is for the good of the patient , that is who we are here to serve .”
GP plans $ 15 ‘ Premier ’ s Payroll Tax ’
FROM PAGE 1 on an assumption that , if your payroll went , for example , to $ 2.1 million , you would pay payroll tax on the entire $ 2.1 million , not on the $ 100,000 that was above the threshold .
“ That was a factual error in their work , and they put that into the public arena . It has been corrected multiple times … in estimates .
“ It is not correct ; it is a wild assertion with no basis in fact .
“ To the extent that there could be , [ the additional cost ] has been modelled at $ 1- $ 2 but only on the largest corporate practices , of which there are very few in the ACT .”
Professor Charlotte Hespe , chair of the RACGP ’ s NSW / ACT
faculty , said the college had met with most practices in the ACT as it put together data to refute Mr Barr ’ s accusations .
Dr Haikerwal — whose practice generally charges $ 94 for a standard consult — said any fee hikes would inevitably lead to debates on the correct amount .
But he warned state governments chasing cash that any fee hike would cause some patients to reduce GP visits , with a
‘ It is a wild assertion with no basis in fact .’
knock-on cost for public hospitals .
He claimed one practice group had received a backdated payroll tax bill of $ 800,000 , while another was grappling with a bill for around $ 500,000 .
“ In 2023 , the revenue office in Victoria is saying it wants five years of backdated tax ,” he said .
“ That is not right .”
TGA secures alternatives for children on liquid morphine
Rachel Fieldhouse THE TGA has secured three alternative oral liquid morphine products to compensate for the dwindling supply of Ordine , which is expected to run dry early next year .
Ordine — the only registered brand of liquid morphine in Australia — will be withdrawn from sale starting in November because the sponsor , Mundipharma , says its local manufacturer will stop production and finding another is “ not commercially viable ”.
When the withdrawal was first announced , Melbourne paediatric palliative care specialist Dr Bronwyn Sacks said it could result in children with poorly managed pain .
“ For kids with cancer — about 30 % of our group — they tend to use Ordine as they are getting sicker but still wanting to be out and about at school , functions or sport activities ,” Dr Sacks said .
“ It allows them to live their lives
Dr Bronwyn Sacks .
while they can , not being tied to a hospital with IV medications .”
Distribution of the analgesic will stop from the end of January , and all remaining supplies are expected to be depleted by March , the TGA say .
But it has granted advance approval for the supply of three overseas-registered liquid morphine products to be made available from 1 December .
These include two morphine oral solutions ( 2mg / mL and 10mg / 5mL ) from the UK and morphine hydrochloride oral drops ( 10mg / mL ) from Switzerland .
However , the TGA warned that the alternatives “ may contain different excipients or formulations ” to Ordine — for instance , the morphine hydrochloride oral drops contained alcohol , while one morphine sulfate product contained ethanol and sucrose .
Before the TGA announcement , one AusDoc reader questioned whether pharmacists could make liquid morphine if needed .
“ When I was a resident at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre some years ago , pharmacists made their own ,” Dr Peter Wein said .
But pharmacologist Professor Ric Day from UNSW Sydney said , while this may have been possible “ a long time ago ”, it was an expensive option , and it was cheaper to import .