The unfortunate consequence

In an extract from her new book, Demonising a Good Doctor, former GP DR HELEN OVERTON revisits the 1988 Cartwright Inquiry into the treatment of cervical cancer at National Women's Hospital, and argues that it profoundly changed the way the health system is managed.

- DR HELEN OVERTON

Here is a taste of reality that could be from any New Zealand hospital (this is based on one I know of from 2016) to give you a small understanding of the conditions which can never be reproduced, explained or appreciated later in a courtroom.

The doctor working in the emergency department is called to an emergency. Urgent attention is required. In real life, this doctor is already stretched to breaking. They worked very late the day before, didn't get much sleep because of a sick child at home, worked extra shifts all month and hasn't had time to deal with the emotional fallout from the death of a patient days before.

They need to pee, haven't had a drink in five hours and nothing to eat for seven. They are on painkillers for a toothache as they can't find the time to get to the dentist. Crying in toilets at lunchtime? That would be the least of it. And that was all before Covid-19.

When this doctor is accused of making a mistake resulting in harm to someone, their fate will be decided in a nice quiet room, in a "civilised" fashion where no understanding of their true capabilities on that day is considered. They will get the blame. That is what stress in our health services really means. It applies now to all health workers, not just doctors.

TWO AGENDAS

The evidence is strong that agendas such as a feminist one - to take the power from male doctors - and a political one influenced the Cartwright Inquiry and affected its impartiality.

In the 1980s, the New Zealand government was wanting to privatise health services. The later market-orientated health reforms heralded a new era in medicine, where bureaucrats ran the health system, as David Williams, an investigative journalist for Newsroom, wrote in 2021.