Hospital defends suspending doctors



Hospital defends suspending doctors

Tuesday October 14 2014, 4:00pm

The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service (CHHHS) is defending its decision to suspend two doctors for making comments to the media in the wake of an Ebola scare. 

The two senior doctors were suspended on full pay on Monday 'following the unauthorised release of patient information', according to a CHHHS media release today.

The doctors are understood to have voiced their concerns that Cairns nurse Sue Kovack, who was tested for Ebola after returning from Sierra Leone, was not moved to an isolation ward while tests for the virus were carried out.

The two doctors have not been named.

CHHHS board chair Bob Norman said the decision to suspend the officers was made because of the need for information about serious matters, like a potential outbreak, to be 'released in a timely and accurate manner' and that the hospital's board was concerned inaccurate information could undermine public confidence in the CHHHS.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officer's Federation (ASMOF) has called for the doctors to be immediately reinstated. 

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg has supported the hospital board's decision to suspend the doctors, while Premier Cambpell Newman commented that he would like to see additional information surrounding the matter.

Mr Springborg said Ms Kovac was treated in an isolated area of the hospital's emergency ward and that the CHHHS board made the right decision in suspending the doctors. 

Ms Kovack has twice tested negative for signs of the Ebola virus.