One of our readers claims that when he saw Dr Grant, (use this link to be taken to his entry on the AHPRA website,) about a frequency problem he was experiencing – increasingly he was having to get up to 2 or 3 times a night to go to the toilet, which was making it harder for him to get a good nights’ sleep – he referred him to Dr Andrew Brooks, Urologist, for his help.
Dr Brooks recommended and carried out a TURP operation, which our reader claims involved him in:-
- Having an operation under a full anaesthetic, which always has it’s risks.
- Two very uncomfortable days in hospitals.
- Expenditure of more than $6,000, even after rebates from Medicare, including Brooks’ fee of $3,200 for less than an hours’ work.
none of which helped with the frequency problem in any way, AND, the TURP damaged him for life in a highly personal way, it can’t be reversed.
Our reader therefore claims that, EITHER, Grant didn’t know that Brooks was a crook, one of the worst doctors on the planet, which was GROSS NEGLIGENCE, (surely we’re entitled to expect of GPs that they will only refer their patients to Specialists they know to be good???) OR, he knew what he was like, and still kept referring patients like him to him – for whatever reasons, perhaps so he would continue to get kickbacks from him, AND readers, which of these is the worst?
In relation to this, one of the four different people who have contacted us, over the years, complaining about the posts we’ve put up about Brooks, (when all we’ve ever done is put up our reader’s claims, at the same time sending Brooks more than 20 emails providing him with opportunities to let us and our readers know his responses to these claims,) happened to mention that Brooks, from time to time makes “contributions” to GPs to help them in running their practices, which he described as a “norm” for the industry!!! And this obviously raised the possibility that Grant was continuing to refer patients to Brooks so he could continue to receive his “contributions???” – which most people would call “bribes.” Was he? Is he? Emails have therefore been sent to Grant asking him if he’s ever received one of Brooks’ “contributions,” which haven’t even been acknowledged, let alone responded to. In fact, Grant has blocked emails from both our reader and us.
(Of course, we believe Brooks should be in gaol! – there would be lots of people in gaol for doing less physical damage to people than Brooks did to our reader. And we believe Grant should be in gaol as well.)
None of the things set out above would be news to any of those who have been readers of our blogs at all. So why are we repeating them? Because, we’ve been working on finding good health care workers and avoiding those who are not so good for more than 11 years now, and, increasingly we’re coming to believe that it’s all the fault of us, the people. There’s an old saying that, “We get the politicians we deserve,” and increasingly it’s becoming obvious to us that we get the health care workers we deserve. In fact, we’re starting to be surprised there aren’t more crooks out there – we, the people, are so slack in choosing which health care workers we choose to use. We bet, although we intend to look into this further, that none of the above, no matter how many times it’s put up on our blogs or elsewhere, has made a scrap of difference to Dr Grant’s practice, or Dr Brooks’ practice?
We, the people, have got to change. If we continue to use the Grants and Brooks of this world, we have no one else to blame except ourselves.
In relation to this, our reader advises that, when, some 5 years ago, he was tossing up whether to accept Grant’s advice and see Brooks, he DID send emails out to 2 or 3 other Urologists, and got a response from a Dr Paul Sved, (who he’s subsequently come to believe is one of the best doctors on the planet,) who expressed the opinion that there were lots of treatments for the frequency problem to consider before surgery – but, in the end, he decided to go along with the advice of Dr Grant, who he’d been using for 5 or 6 years, and thought was quite good. What a horrible way to learn how wrong he was!