A damning report on patient care at Wanganui Hospital is being released overnight Monday.
The Health and Disability Commissioner's examination is expected to blast the Whanganui District Health Board for hiring a doctor who repeatedly botched women's sterilisation surgery, while drinking on the job.
Czechoslovakian trained Dr Roman Hasil left the country a year ago but he has left a trail of medical misery in his wake.
Fredericka Himmel, one affected patient, ended up facing unnecessary repeat surgery and losing an ovary.
"He should've had instructions by the sounds of things. He should not have been operating on women the way he did," says Himmel.
Fifteen women have so far come forward with similar claims, and worse. They are considering legal action against Hasil and the Whanganui DHB who hired him in 2005.
"Their biggest complaint I guess was that they went there in good faith and they've been badly let down. But not just that. They've really been hurt, they've been harmed," says John Rowan QC, complainants' lawyer.
Like most overseas doctors, Hasil was hired to work under two-year supervision at the hospital. But in just nine short months he botched eight out of 32 sterilisation procedures. Six resulted in pregnancies. Most women had a termination. Two women now claim Hasil removed their ovaries without permission. Others claim they suffered complications from other gynaecological surgery he performed.
Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson would not comment on his report until after its midnight release. However, it's expected to be scathing about a lack of reference checking by the health board before hiring Hasil, about this lack of supervision on the job and the ineffectual way complaints were handled.
Whanganui DHB member Dr Clive Solomon quit the hospital due to safety concerns during Hasil's time there.
He has been keenly awaiting the report.
"This should've been done ages ago and this is what I've been asking for all along," says Solomon.
The report is also expected to focus on Hasil's drinking issues.
The DHB acted on several staff complaints that Hasil smelt of alcohol while on the job. But a ministry report last year said if he had been suspended after the first incident, four of the six botched sterilisation procedures would have been avoided.
