A LONG-serving anaesthetist at Canberra Hospital claims he has been harassed since lodging a complaint alleging medical records were used in a flawed study without patients being properly de-identified.
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The project studied the effectiveness of blood transfusions given to emergency patients before they arrived at hospital.
Dr Nick Melhuish had claimed he could find out who the patients were from a quick internet search even though their names had been deleted.
Dr Melhuish, who has worked at the hospital for 17 of the past 20 years, lodged his complaint with the Australian Research Integrity Commission, which in a draft report in December dismissed the doctor's concern that the research was fraudulent because it omitted certain data.
The commission said it would not make a finding about the alleged breach of patient privacy until Canberra Hospital had done its own investigation.
On Friday, an ACT Health spokeswoman said the hospital's investigation found no evidence of research misconduct for the study, which was approved by the ACT Health Human Research Ethics Committee.
''ACT Health denies that Dr Melhuish has been harassed,'' the spokeswoman said.
A complaint by a staff member about Dr Melhuish has been passed on by Canberra Hospital to Australia's medical watchdog, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Dr Melhuish said this in itself was harassment against him because it was lodged not long after his complaint about the study which, he added, was the only time he had made a significant complaint in the past two decades.
''They have been trying all sorts of things to get me to withdraw my complaint,'' Dr Melhuish said.
''A complaint was made against me a week after I put in my complaint (about the study).''
The commission said the hospital staff member had a right to have the formal complaint of bullying or harassment against Dr Melhuish considered through an appropriate process.
It was not a matter for the commission.
''The AHPRA process affords natural justice,'' the draft report said.
The commission would only investigate this part of the complaint if AHPRA found the complaint against Dr Melhuish to be spurious.
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