Police will be asked to investigate a New South Wales doctor who harmed women for more than two decades, needlessly removing their reproductive organs and leaving them with life-threatening infections.
It follows an independent investigation into the doctor, Emil Shawky Gayed, which was ordered after a Guardian Australia investigation which revealed that one of his patients had died.
The high-profile lawyer Gail Furness SC delivered the findings from her inquiry to the NSW health department on 31 January, but the report was only made public on Thursday morning.
In a rare move and at the direction of the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, NSW Health will also provide the report to police for investigation.
The deputy secretary of NSW Health, Dr Nigel Lyons, paid tribute to those who had come forward before and during the review.
“We would like to thank the brave patients and staff members who contributed to the inquiry, he said. “They assisted greatly in identifying the systems failure in the administration of Dr Gayed’s appointments and management, which affected the care he provided.”
Lyons said NSW Health had accepted the report and its recommendations in full. The treatment of more than 50 women has also been referred to the Health Care Complaints Commission for investigation.
“Ensuring that our patients receive quality services and appropriate and safe care remains the priority of NSW Health and we are very sorry that this was not the case for many women who were treated by Dr Gayed,” he said.
The law firm Slater and Gordon is advising dozens of women who were treated by Gayed.
“The concerns about Dr Gayed’s poor eyesight and ability to safely practice medicine were first raised almost two decades ago,” said the firm’s practice group leader, Andrew Baker.
“That it has taken this long for these issues to be recognised is scandalous. Over that period, he operated with effectively no oversight, and it appears that the system that is meant to protect the public comprehensively failed in fulfilling its responsibilities.
“The report demonstrates that the complex and multi-layered system of regulation and oversight that applied in NSW failed – catastrophically in some cases.”
A separate Health Care Complaints Commission investigation that concluded in 2017 found he removed the healthy fallopian tube of one woman and needlessly performed a hysterectomy on another. But Guardian Australia then revealed complaints were made about Gayed more than two decades ago while he worked in Canberra. This triggered a broader investigation led by Furness and which examined the five health districts where he was known to have worked.
Furness delivered a part of her report in November, which found the state medical watchdog, the Medical Council of NSW, placed the privacy of a negligent doctor before the right of his employers to know of his history of harming patients and also before public safety.
Furness was asked to report back to NSW Health by 30 September but asked for two extensions due to the number of patients identified who had been harmed, with the report finally made public on Thursday.
Guardian Australia previously revealed that more than five years ago, tests ordered by Gayed showed that one of his patients had endometrial hyperplasia, an overgrowth of uterine lining that can progress to or be a sign of cancer. After discovering the hyperplasia Gayed performed endometrial ablation surgery on the woman, which removes and destroys layers of the uterus. Ablation should never be performed on women with hyperplasia because scarring from the procedure can mask cancer growth, and trigger the development of cancerous cells.
In February 2018 the woman returned to the hospital’s emergency department with heavy vaginal bleeding. Doctors found she had uterine cancer. It was so far advanced that it was unable to be treated and the woman died. The woman was told about Gayed’s error before she died and received counselling and support.
Gayed resigned from the Manning Rural Referral hospital, which is a public hospital, in February 2016, months after the HCCC alerted him that he was under investigation. Five weeks after he resigned, restrictions were placed on him by health authorities, barring him from performing major surgeries. He continued to practise in his own private rooms in Taree as well as in Dee Why and Mona Vale in Sydney. He then abandoned his private clinics and relinquished his registration before the first HCCC investigation was complete. As a result of the Furness report, the HCCC will now open a fresh investigation into the cases of more than 50 women.
