Victorian doctor suspended amid investigation into woman’s death after abortion – The Guardian
Girls’s well being clinic boss claims ‘witch hunt’ after Dr Rudolph Lopes suspended in weeks following 30-year-old’s demise
A physician working at a ladies’s well being clinic in Melbourne has been suspended as a regulator revealed it was conscious of issues about different practitioners there. The ability’s boss claims it’s a “witch hunt”.
It follows the demise of 30-year-old mom Harjit Kaur, who died in January on the Hampton Park Girls’s Clinic after what was described as a “minor process”.
It was later recognized as a being pregnant termination.
On Friday, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) confirmed Dr Rudolph Lopes’ registration had been suspended however didn’t reveal the rationale behind the choice.
His registration particulars present he was reprimanded in 2021 for failing to answer the regulator’s inquiries.
“[The regulator] has acquired a variety of issues about quite a few practitioners related to the Hampton Park Girls’s Clinic,” Ahpra stated in an announcement.
“A few of these issues are additionally earlier than the Victorian coroner.
“[The regulator] has established a specialist group to guide a co-ordinated examination of those points which contain a number of practitioners throughout quite a few professions and throughout quite a few observe places.”
The regulator stated it had shared info with Victoria police and the division of well being.
Ahpra chief government, Martin Fletcher, stated he was “gravely involved by the image that’s rising.”
“Now we have taken sturdy motion to guard the general public whereas our investigations proceed,” Fletcher stated.
“Nationwide boards stand able to take any additional regulatory motion wanted to maintain sufferers protected.
“Whereas the coroner continues to look at the tragic demise of a affected person, our inquiries are specializing in a wider vary of points that our investigations deliver to gentle.”
A division of well being spokesperson stated it had suspended the clinic’s registration as a day process centre after discovering it was “working in a way that poses critical dangers to affected person well being or security”.
Hampton Park Girls’s Clinic medical director, Michelle Kenney, instructed AAP the clinic had “nothing to do with” the demise of Kaur.
She believed the coroner is wanting into whether or not Kaur had a congenital coronary heart concern.
“I consider this constitutes a witch hunt and that we’re being handled as responsible till confirmed harmless,” Kenney stated.
“The demise of Mrs Kaur was very tragic, sudden and sudden.
“My group had 30 seconds to answer her coronary heart stopping they usually carried out a superb resuscitation which lasted for over 45 minutes.”
Kenney stated she was unsure about why Lopes had been suspended.
“There’s nothing extra we might have presumably achieved however no one’s taking note of our response in any respect, or the truth that we had no time to reply,” she stated.
A message on the clinic’s web site states surgical terminations, sleep vasectomies and IUD insertions with anaesthetic aren’t out there till additional discover, however Kenney stated that was not associated to Kaur’s demise.
Kenney urged current sufferers to be “calm and wise”.
“We shall be discovered harmless and hopefully not destroyed by all of the regulatory our bodies within the meantime,” she stated.
Victoria police confirmed it had acquired a report from Ahpra and there can be no felony investigation at this stage.
