VIDEO: Gynaecologist referred to police after Four Corners report

SOPHIE WILKINSON: I don’t know how it happened. I honestly don’t know how he has continued to operate when he has had so many complaints about him.   

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: For years, women have been making complaints to the medical regulator AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) about one of Melbourne’s busiest laparoscopic surgeons, Dr Simon Gordon. 

AHPRA chose not to act on those complaints. 

MARY SPANOS:  I'll never forget the woman's voice on the phone who was handling my case. She genuinely sounded so choked up and so apologetic, and she kept saying over and over again, she's like, 'I understand, and I'm so, so sorry, but there's really just nothing we could do’.

CLAIRE GALLAHER:  And it’s just so frustrating to think that so it didn’t have to happen.   

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Claire Gallaher had two surgeries with Dr Gordon for endometriosis. 

CLAIRE GALLAHER:  I couldn't believe how I felt when I woke up - I couldn't move.

I have had two laparoscopies before, and I didn't feel anywhere near as gruelling and terrible as what I felt after this.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Sophie Wilkinson had a very similar experience. 

SOPHIE WILKINSON:  I was screaming in pain.  I was crying. It was horrific.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: After their surgeries, the women got a second opinion from a professor of gynaecology who referred Sophie’s case to his multidisciplinary team for complex cases. 

The consensus was that Sophie’s surgery was “neither necessary nor helpful”. 

The professor advised Sophie and Claire to complain to AHPRA. 

CLAIRE GALLAHER: The professor said that Simon's surgeries are extreme and radical and takes way too much tissue and that because of how much he's taken away from the uterus that to have any future surgeries is just really high risk. 

SOPHIE WILKINSON:  The complaint went to the board, so it did get looked into. It went further than a lot of the other complaints did and the board decided, came to the conclusion that he had acted in what was it, acted in an acceptable standard.  

 LOUISE MILLIGAN:  Do you think he did?  

SOPHIE WILKINSON:  Absolutely not, no way. 

LOUISE MILLIGAN:  We spoke to the professor of gynaecology who saw Sophie and Claire here at Epworth Hospital. He told us that he believed AHPRA had “dropped the ball” because it did not have an endometriosis expert independently examine the Sophie and Claire’s complaints and simply accepted Dr Gordon’s version of events. 

Back in October, AHPRA wrote to Sophie that there was “no indication that an inappropriate amount of tissue was removed”.   

On Monday, AHPRA told the women it was rare for the regulator to seek independent advice. 

AHPRA is now conducting an investigation and will consider reopening Sophie and Claire’s complaints. 

MARK BUTLER, FEDERAL HEALTH MINISER:  I think the first thing that's important to do is investigate these cases thoroughly. AHPRA has heard the message that they're expected to do that. 

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Epworth’s management of Dr Gordon is also under scrutiny. When nurses became concerned about Dr Gordon and asked the hospital if it would support them to complain to AHPRA, the hospital’s chief medical officer told them that they could do so through Epworth’s lawyers, noting that it would be “legally privileged”. 

Legal professional privilege means documents for the purpose of obtaining legal advice aren’t available to people suing the hospital. Plaintiff lawyers representing the women wonder whether this was designed to prevent their clients from understanding what this hospital knew. 

EMILY HART, SOLICITOR, ARNOLD THOMAS AND BECKER:  This is what I find very difficult to understand in this circumstance is ultimately there were many layers to try and protect patients, and they all seem to have failed.  

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Should Epworth be advising whistleblower nurses who are scared about what is happening to patients that they copy in the lawyers so that the communication is secret? 

MARY-ANNE THOMAS, VICTORIAN HEALTH MINISTER: Well, no, they should not. 

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Epworth said in a statement that any suggestion legal advice was sought to prevent patients from accessing their health information was "incorrect and without basis". 

The hospital has commissioned an external review into its clinical governance. The Victorian Premier today announced that would be overseen by Safer Care Victoria. 

JACINTA ALLAN, VICTORIAN PREMIER:  It is apparent that there are some systematic issues here in the private health system that needs to be addressed, and I think part of your report last night went to a health professional who felt that her own voice was silenced.

LOUISE MILLIGAN:  She said she was scared. 

JACINTA ALLAN: She was scared. That's not acceptable. That is not good enough. 

MARY-ANNE THOMAS:  So, it's clear that the culture of senior and powerful doctors protecting other senior and powerful doctors has to end. 

LOUISE MILLIGAN:  The Premier has written to Victoria’s Police Commissioner.   

JACINTA ALLAN: Performing um, unnecessary surgeries against women is a crime, which is why it needs to be investigated. And it comes back to that, that point, the thing about this is about a culture here and it is about a culture that needs to be addressed, as the minister has said, busted open, and part of that is about sending a message to health professionals about the sorts of standards we expect here in Victoria.