We could write a book on this.
As we’ve set out in many posts already, when one of our readers was referred to A/Prof. Andrew Brooks, Urologist, for help with the frequency problem he was experiencing – he was having to get up 2 or 3 times a night to urinate – Brooks recommended a TURP operation to fix the problem.
At the same time, in complete contrast, when our reader emailed Professor Paul Sved, Urologist, seeking his opinion, he emailed back saying that there were lots of things to be considered before surgery.
So what to do? what to do?
In what our readers says was one of the biggest mistakes of his life, he chose to go with the recommendation of Dr Chris Grant, a GP he’d been using for 5 or 6 years and thought was quite good, and see Brooks.
And the result was that the TURP operation not only didn’t help in any way, it damaged him for life, it can’t be reversed, it doesn’t sometimes happen, it ALWAYS happens. A complete disaster!!!
One of the aspects of this was that the Brooks’ way involved him getting a $3,2oo fee for less than an hours work!!! when it’s hard to imagine that the various things Professor Sved suggested could be tried before surgery wouldn’t have cost anything like that.
So after Brooks’ complete failure, our reader turned to Professor Sved, who in turn sought the assistance of A/Prof. Vincent Tse. And our reader claims that Professor Sved and A/Prof. Tse have turned out to be two of the best doctors he’s ever come across.
And in thinking about these things, something has occurred to us which we find incredibly disturbing – what if Brooks is making more money than Sved or Tse, perhaps far more??? which seems quite likely??? And how would one ever know?
Our reader claims that when he mentioned to GP Grant that he thought that Brooks must be putting together a nest egg as quickly as possible for his retirement, Grant just laughed and said, “I would have thought that he would have had lots of nest eggs already!”
But worse is to follow – perhaps much worse!
Our reader claims that in the years since his operation in 2014, Brooks has had 4 different henchmen phone him making all sorts of threats against him, requesting that he ensure that the posts on our blogs be taken down and that apologies be offered to Brooks????!!!!! They never threatened defamation proceedings, presumably because they realised that the truth would come out during defamation proceedings. And one of them happened to mention, (we bet he wishes he hadn’t,) that, from time to time, Brooks made “contributions” – others would call them “bribes” – to GPs to help them in running their practices, which he described as being a “norm” for the industry!!!! And when we emailed GP Grant asking him if he’d ever received any of Brooks’ “contributions,” guess what happened? Not only did he not respond – he made it impossible for our reader to send him further emails.
So the picture seems to be that GPs are referring patients to Brooks, either, because they don’t know what Brooks is like, which seems incredibly unlikely, especially when that’s part of their job, to refer patients to only the best, or, to get “contributions” in running their practices
And it keeps getting worse.
Brooks keeps getting all these awards! The Ramsay Hospital and the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand seem to treat him as a Rock Star.
And to cap it all off, just back on Australia day this last January:-
Doesn’t anyone know what he’s like???
The fact is that, in some situations, the reward system that operates is such that you are better off being a crook that a good guy, better off being a Brooks than a Sved or a Tse, and it’s looking like this is the reward system that operates with medical practitioners in NSW, which is incredibly incredibly DISTURBING!!!.
And who determines this reward system? the Health Care Complaints Commissioners, the Health Ministers and the Premiers.
Our reader says he’s never made a complaint about Brooks to the NSW HCCC, because, from what he’s learnt from his experiences in making complaints about other doctors, he’s always believed that, while Sue Dawson was the Commissioner, it would be a waste of his precious time and Brooks would have the last laugh anyway.
Email us at info@questionsmisc.info. And for more details on us, use this link.