We think this is amongst the most bizarre things we’ve ever ever come across!!!
This is part of a 13 Apr 2017 NSW Health Care Complaints Commission Media Release on allegations made against a NSW doctor, Dr Elvin Cheng:-
Three of the incidents of “inappropriate behaviour” referred to happened in 1993 – almost a quarter of a century ago!!!
It would be interesting to know who made the original complaints to the HCCC about these incidents, and when they were made, but details like this are NEVER disclosed by the HCCC – it might make them look just too silly. Sometimes comments like this are made – “We are responding to a complaint made on such and such a date,” a more recent date – but this is always the date on which a complaint was moved from one part of their bureaucracy to another.
So guess how many days have been spent on hearings into these allegations? Here’s your answer:-
So 11 working days, more than 2 working weeks of full hearings, before 4 “judges,” plus pages and pages, perhaps 30..40, of the most detailed reporting, perhaps at a cost of more than $200,000. And two full days on the 17..18 May, 2017 have been allocated for the deciding of “what protective orders should be made.”
Our guess is that what is come up with on 17-18 May will, for Dr Cheng, be something like being “hit over the wrist with a wet lettuce leaf,” as the saying goes. Three of the incidents complained of happened 23..24 years ago, and all the indications are that Dr Cheng has been as busy as ever in those 23..24 years, and will continue to be so, whatever is decided then.
We don’t want to trivialise in any way the experience of those who have been found to have had their private parts inappropriately looked at and touched by a doctor. But one has to question whether the allocation of limited resources that have been made in this instance are the wisest and best that could have been made, and whether the outcomes that are finally achieved could have been achieved more quickly, more effectively and more cheaply.
It’s almost as though the HCCC, (and AHPRA,) are working on briefs from governments – “Handle complaints so badly that more and more people will decide it’s not worthwhile making them and we can say that they are going down and down.”