An India-trained pathologist working at a Tamworth hospital in northern New South Wales may have been responsible for the death of six patients because of misdiagnosis of hundreds of tests by him.
The shocking revelations of Dr Farid Zaer's failure to correctly analyse diseases has been made public by the NSW government on Melbourne.
An unspecified number of patients are also believed to have undergone unnecessary surgery because of Dr Zaer's incorrect diagnosis. The state government had ordered review of thousands of anatomical pathology tests conducted by the India-trained doctor at Tamworth Hospital from 1999-2001.
He has become fourth Indian doctor in recent past, to be held responsible for wrongful death of patients under his or her care.
Earlier, Dr Jayant Patel had been labeled Dr Death for his role in the death of a number of patients, during his tenure at a regional hospital in Queensland.
Another India-trained Dr Jaideep Bali was accused of negligence in the death of an elderly patient in the same state, earlier this week. Meanwhile, a Sydney doctor Suman Sood is already facing a lengthy jail term after being convicted over an illegal abortion in the first case of its kind in the NSW state in 25 years.
Dr Zaer is now under scrutiny for his role in a series of misdiagnoses, while working at Tamworth and Wollongong Hospitals in NSW. NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos has reportedly apologised to 38 people, who may have been mistreated following the misdiagnoses of tests analysed at the hospital.
According to a media report quoting Chief Executive of Hunter New England Health Terry Clout, 7432 tests involving Dr Zaer were re-examined, 217 of these had 'significant diagnostic variations.' A total of 2250 tests were also found to have minor diagnostic variations.
The suspect pathologist Dr Zaer has been reportedly banned from practising as a pathologist in NSW.
