A senior Queensland surgeon has been accused of sexual misconduct in letters tabled in state parliament by the Liberal National Party. A leading surgeon continues to work in Queensland hospitals despite health officials banning junior female doctors from training with him because of alleged sexual misconduct. Letters written by medical practitioners who claimed professional and sexual misconduct against the Brisbane doctor were tabled in parliament by Liberal National Party MP Ros Bates on Tuesday. He still works in a number of public and private Queensland hospitals. The names of their authors have been redacted and only some of them are dated. The letters reveal claims he inappropriately touched female colleagues, asked for sexual favours, and invited colleagues to engage in sex acts with him. One practitioner writes of junior female doctors being barred by Queensland health officials and The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) from training with him at a Brisbane hospital. This was done “for fear of exposing any more female junior surgical trainees to his sexual misconduct”, their letter says. Ms Bates did not name the surgeon in parliament, but said she had been contacted in recent weeks by medical professionals who disclosed the allegations. “They claim that he is a rogue surgeon placing surgical trainees and patients at risk. “They have taken the extraordinary step to speak out and they want me to speak out because they are sick of nothing being done.” Ms Bates called for a thorough investigation into the claims, and said she had written to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and Office of the Health Ombudsman with her concerns. The correspondence also details claims he rushed procedures and that patients needed life-saving surgery after complications that came about from surgeries he performed. It also says he mismanaged patients after surgery, bullied and verbally abused colleagues, phoned them intoxicated in the middle of the night and verbally abused them, physically intimidated staff and told women they would make poor surgeons because of their gender. A nurse told colleagues the surgeon touched her buttocks from behind, invited her to engage in sex acts with him while driving past her home at night and asked her to give him oral sex in theatre in a proposition overheard by other staff. “On one occasion he lowered his pants in an operating theatre in front of nurses and medical equipment representatives and then stood in his underwear while another man proceeded to measure his waist and legs for a suit fitting,” another letter says.
