Doctor cleared of horse woman abuse

May 2024 ยท 3 minute read

AN obstetrician accused of calling a patient a slut and telling another "you have just given birth to a family of haemorrhoids" has been cleared of making rude comments.

The New South Wales Medical Tribunal also found Czech-trained Roman Hasil's behaviour, which included drink-driving offences and downing a six-pack of beer in a hospital carpark, did not make him unfit to practise medicine.

But the 56-year-old could be struck off for his inability to practise medicine after sustaining a brain injury.

Hasil has worked in Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and New Zealand and in most cases left workplaces in controversial circumstances.

He has already been suspended and deregistered in NSW for not paying his medical board fees.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission submitted a complaint detailing allegations of rude behaviour and malpractice made by 15 patients while he worked at Lismore Base Hospital between 2001 and 2005.

In its judgement last week the NSW Medical Tribunal found that many of the complaints could not be substantiated.

Hasil was accused of telling nurses to "stirrup the bitch" after a patient in pain kicked him in the face while he was stitching her vaginal and anal areas after she had given birth.

"She stated whilst he was undertaking the stitching, he was making comments like 'horse woman, this will teach you to kick the doctor, whore, slut'," the judgment said.

She also accused him of not using gloves during the procedure.

Another patient alleged that when she asked Hasil if the baby was coming, "he said 'no, but you have just given birth to a family of haemorrhoids'."

Hasil was cleared of the allegations on evidence from nursing staff that they didn't recall him making those comments or the fact that the patients did not make a formal complaint soon after the incident.

The tribunal did find that Hasil kept poor medical records in some instances but rejected a second complaint from the commission that he was not of good character.

Hasil was convicted of domestic violence against his second wife by a Singapore Court in 1995 and failed to disclose the offence when he successfully applied to Royal Hobart Hospital in 1997.

He was dismissed for drinking on duty from the Angliss Hospital in Victoria in 2005 after downing a six-pack of beer in the hospital car park.

After working in New Zealand between 2005 and 2007, an inquiry found Hasil performed eight unsuccessful sterilisation procedures, took out a woman's ovaries without her knowledge and drank alcohol on the job.

Twice in 2008 he was convicted of high-range drink driving and that same year was convicted of common assault after he pushed past a waitress while leaving a restaurant without paying.

"While the offences are clearly serious and cannot in any way be condoned, in the tribunal's view they do not rule out his fitness to practise medicine," the judgement states.

But Hasil suffered a head injury in 2009 that required brain surgery and the tribunal agreed that Hasil suffers an impairment that would affect his ability as a medical practitioner.

The tribunal will set a date this week when it will hand down orders that could include Hasil being struck off.

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