The Health News New Zealand May 8 2018

Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill recently released a report stating that a junior doctor turned a woman away thinking that she had constipation but it was later discovered she required urgent surgery to remove her ovary. He has ordered that doctor to apologize for what he did to the women. The doctor failed to properly assess the 33-year-old woman who presented in the emergency department.

New Zealand’s Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill recently released a report stating that a junior doctor turned a woman away thinking that she had constipation but it was later discovered she required urgent surgery to remove her ovary. Now the doctor is being asked to apologize for what he did to the woman. The doctor failed to properly assess the thirty three-year-old woman who presented in the emergency department.

According to the report, the woman was rushed to the emergency department at twelve forty eight AM on March six, two thousand sixteen with severe abdominal pain in her right lower quadrant. An X-ray was done on her and tests were ordered by a senior doctor who discharged the woman at six twenty six PM with pain relief and instructed her to return for an ultrasound if symptoms persisted.

Later that same day, the woman returned to the emergency department where she was seen by a junior doctor who did another X-ray but spotted no abnormality. Despite the registered nurse documenting her pain score as four out of five, the junior doctor quickly discharged the woman, diagnosing her condition as constipation.

Commissioner Hill considered the junior doctor’s diagnosis of constipation, based on the history and examinations performed, was inappropriate and he has demanded the doctor to write a formal letter of apology to the woman and recommended the district health board use an anonymized version of this case for the wider education of its medical registrars.