Dr Richard Hocking. Photo: capitalortho.com.au
Embattled Canberra orthopaedic surgeon Richard Hocking has been suspended from practising medicine by the national watchdog amid a two-year investigation.
It is not yet known whether Dr Hocking will exercise his right to appeal the decision, now made public on the website of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
The AHPRA website states a doctor can be suspended by the medical watchdog if there is a serious risk posed to the health and safety of the public.
Dr Hocking was suspended last Friday - the harshest move made to limit him so far by a watchdog which has been scrutinising the surgeon for two years.
The ACT Medical Board, overseen by AHPRA, has been investigating multiple allegations of errors Dr Hocking has made on patients.
Documents have shown one of the alleged mistakes investigated involved a 69-year-old woman who had to have her leg amputated following hip surgery gone wrong in early 2011.
The board's findings on this case and others have been kept secret.
But following the medical board's investigations into this and other matters, Dr Hocking was in 2012 banned from doing certain surgeries unsupervised and forced to do months of retraining in the area of open adult hip surgery as well as adult and paediatric hip and pelvic surgeries.
Dr Hocking is not the only surgeon the medical board launched an investigation into following the amputation case.
As reported a week ago, the medical board is still reviewing the role its own longtime president, vascular surgeon Dr Stephen Bradshaw, played in the woman's case.
Dr Bradshaw has stridently denied he should share any of the responsibility for the amputation case, and documents obtained by Fairfax Media show he blamed the loss of the leg on bleeding caused by Dr Hocking during surgery.
Dr Bradshaw has not commented to The Canberra Times but in documents written to AHPRA he says he has always withdrawn from medical board deliberations involving Dr Hocking.
Dr Hocking is yet to comment on any of the matters reported so far.
ACT Supreme Court documents show earlier this year Dr Hocking settled a case out of court with a former public servant, Kim Harstorff.
A statement of claim lodged on behalf of Ms Harstorff alleged Dr Hocking partially severed her left sciatic nerve.
In the documents lodged on June 25 last year, it was alleged Ms Harstorff went to Dr Hocking with hip pain bad enough to wake her up during the night.
After the operation she was left with alleged problems in the leg including deformity, hypersensitivity in her left foot, painful tingling and shooting pain in her left calf and foot and intermittent cramps in her left hamstring as well as an inability to squat, kneel on her left knee, walk properly or stand for any period of time painlessly.
As reported at the time, Ms Harstorff's lawyer, Gerard Rees, said Ms Harstorff was satisfied with the way the matter was resolved.
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