Charges against doctors pending

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 6

Charges against doctors pending

PA Wellington The Medical Council is about to consider specific charges against doctors involved in the National Women’s Hospital cervical cancer treatment programme, Parliament was told yesterday. The Opposition’s spokesman on health, Mr Don McKinnon, asked why there had been such slow progress in disciplinary proceedings against doctors* involved in the cervical cancer experiment outlined in the subsequent report by Judge Silvia Cartwright. The Under-Secretary of Health, Mr Clive Matthewson, said the council had just written to the Minister of Health, Ms Helen Clark, explaining that the matter had “been under continuous investigation and they are approaching the stage of considering specific charges.” Asked why the public should have had to wait more than a year for the council to decide who should be brought before a disciplinary tribunal, Mr Matthewson said the Medical Association had asked that charges be laid but were “very unspecific.” The Medical Council had been reviewing the case “and making sure they get specific charges to lay.”