00:02Taking women's organs and tissue without a proper clinical reason is a crime and it should
00:11be investigated by Victoria Police if that's the case.
00:14That's what we were hoping might happen and it's good to see from the women's perspective
00:21they have been contacting me to say how relieved they are and grateful they are that what has
00:28happened to them is being taken very very seriously.
00:32As well as the referral to Victoria Police the Premier also announced that Safer Care
00:38Victoria will be overseeing an independent inquiry which has been commissioned by the
00:45Epworth Hospital into its clinical governance.
00:49Now that is significant because as we reported there have been many instances over many years
00:56in which Epworth managers were informed about concerns about Simon Gordon's care of patients
01:06right up to very senior levels of management and in fact we revealed today that nurses who
01:15were very concerned about what was going on and were also conscious of their duty under
01:20mandatory reporting rules were wanting to report to ARPRA, the medical regulator and they asked
01:30for the hospital's support in this.
01:32They wanted to know that it wasn't going to affect their jobs for instance and they were
01:38told by the chief medical officer of the hospital that if they were to do so they should, that the
01:46hospital would support them but to do so through the hospital's lawyers and its media team.
01:53Now the reason that was given to do it through the lawyers was that it would be legally professionally
01:59privileged. Now legal professional privilege means that documents which are used for the purpose of
02:08obtaining legal advice remains secret and that means that women for instance who are suing the hospital
02:17wouldn't get access to these concerns by the nurses and the to and fro between the nurses and management
02:33and that has caused some concern. The other thing that is taking place is a large investigation by ARPRA,
02:44the National Medical Regulator. That has been going for some time now and ARPRA has seized thousands of pages of
02:53documents
02:54from the Epworth Hospital and Simon Gordon for that investigation. But you know we've also revealed today that a number
03:03of women complained some years ago to ARPRA and had their complaints knocked back after ARPRA only heard from them
03:14and the doctor Simon Gordon and didn't get any external expert medical advice.
03:22Now a professor of gynaecology who treated some of these women spoke to us and he said that he was
03:28very concerned that the medical regulator wasn't getting this external advice and in fact was just sort of relying on
03:36the doctor's word.
03:37So Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said to us that he will be watching ARPRA's inquiries into this very very
03:48carefully and there are big questions to be asked about this because this medical regulator is there to protect patient
03:57safety and there are numerous patients who lost reproductive organs and tissue
04:06in operations with this gynaecology after these complaints were made to ARPRA.
04:15I mean I have to say today Ros my phone has almost melted with women coming forward who have more
04:25stories of having multiple operations with this gynaecologist and what was routinely found was that the pathology of
04:36the pathology results on the days of their operations found that there was no endometriosis even though they were being
04:44billed for surgery for severe endometriosis and the surgery was designed for severe endometriosis and all of the impacts that
04:55that has.
04:56Many women coming forward and saying that they had ovaries removed in their 20s and 30s and it is not
05:05recommended that young women have ovaries removed except in very very extreme circumstances or rare circumstances.
05:16And you know this was all happening at Victoria's largest private hospital so you know you would think it is
05:25proper that it has commissioned an external inquiry into its clinical governance given how many people at the hospital knew
05:34what was going on.
05:35And the fact you know we spoke to dozens of Melbourne gynaecologists for our research for this Four Corners story
05:44who told us that the way that Simon Gordon was operating was an open secret in gynaecology.
05:51So you don't know what's gonna see on the pathology, unless you break it in the past.
05:53And you're going to see that three.
05:54Okay.
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