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The State Government is ready to eyeball lawyers over compensation claims for Dr Jayant Patel’s surgery victims.
But rapid compensation for botched surgery at Bundaberg Hospital should help soothe the personal pains while the legal battle continues.
Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford has ruled out changing compensation legislation or making a special case for victims of ‘Dr Death’.
“I’ve instructed (government) lawyers to have claims processed promptly so these people can receive adequate compensation,” he said.
This is the good news that Dr Patel’s patients and their families feared would take for ever and a day. Negotiations will turn meaningful when the claimants’ lawyers haggle over what is ‘adequate’.
Dr Patel may not be sued personally by his surgery losers even if he does return to Queensland to face the music.
Bundaberg inquiry chief Tony Morris, QC, holds the extradition wildcard.
Complications set in this week when Queensland Health’s own review of Dr Patel’s handiwork revealed his failure rate was within acceptable limits (Pity about the 87 or so deaths to which he has been linked!).
So Queensland Health is odds-on to become the compensation defendant if claims finish up in court.
Lawyers representing about 100 of Dr Patel’s patients have stepped up their compensation warnings despite Mr Welford’s initiative. They will be in Bundaberg next week for the Morris hearings.
Lawyers keep suggesting some patients may have to wait up to two years for justice and then receive what Paddy shot at.
Without new legislation or case settlements, the Patel compo process would work like this:
- Notice of claims must be relevant or compliant.
- Up to six months investigation may be required.
- Conferences or mediation is the next step.
- Proceedings may then be issued through the District Court of Queensland.
- If a trial is necessary it may take another year to get a decision.
Solicitor Peter Carter, whose firm represents many of the Bundaberg patients, told The Gold Coast Bulletin there was Buckley’s chance of anyone receiving the maximum $250,000 in compensation in court.
“And most of them are of modest means or living on government benefits,” Mr Carter pointed out.
This bleak assessment of the fallout from the Dr Patel scandal is delivered against the Beattie Government’s insistence of ‘scaremongering’ going on.
Mr Welford confirmed the accident compensation scale was under review.
But Mr Welford was adamant Dr Patel’s victims would not be short-changed by resorting to legislative loopholes.
“The Government will pay for their legal representation at the Morris inquiry,” said Mr Welford.
“And there is not any factual evidence a host of Bundaberg Hospital patients are in dire straits.”
Lawyers estimate more than half of Dr Patel’s victims will receive much less than $30,000. Anyone receiving less than $30,000 may be liable for their own legal costs unless legislation is changed. It is possible some compensation payments could be swallowed entirely by legal fees – or worse, the negligence victim will owe more in legals than he receives in compo!
Hence Mr Welford’s plan to process claims ‘promptly’ and out of court.
The 2002 legislation is not only unpopular among some lawyers. Queensland Chief Justice Paul de Jersey declared he ‘could see little justification’. “Those who act negligently are practically relieved of the consequences … to the detriment of the victim … and possibly the broader community,” Justice de Jersey declared on the Gold Coast in March.
The NSW Government was forced to sidestep legislation to create special compensation for passengers in the Waterfall train crash in January 2003
Trouble is, Queensland’s very own (tilt) train disaster from Bundaberg in November last year has not reached the compensation stage. About 120 passengers were injured.
Prime Minister John Howard championed revision in compensation legislation after the insurance companies crisis in 2002, saying that it was ‘with the objective of limiting liability and quantum of damages arising from personal injury and death’.
It worked again like a charm. Insurance companies are rolling in money again.
Suncorp, for instance, posted a record $562 million profit last financial year. Its shares have lifted from $13 odd to about $20.
Victims’ compensation was transferred to taxpayers through health funds and systems or public hospitals. Problem is, public hospitals’ ability to recoup medical costs has been reduced greatly because new legislation restricts liability claims.
The NSW Government is believed to have paid up to $15 million in special compo for the Waterfall train crash.
Private cash settlements for the 69 claims for compensation for injury or death ranged from several thousand dollars to million-dollar payments. Even so, settlement of all Waterfall crash claims is expected to take years.
There is one catch to the Beattie-Welford plan. Although it promises faster compo than in NSW, it will be carried out under the terms and scales of the Queensland legislation.
“We’re not going to change the laws and we won’t be using special rules,” Mr Welford insisted.
Queenslanders will settle for that, this time, if Dr Patel’s victims get a fair go.