The Swamp Report: Peter Dodwell

Showing posts with label Peter Dodwell. Show all posts

18 February 2013

ACC apologises for blaming client

An article from the Dominion Post by Phil Kitchin

ACC has apologised to a rape victim after a manager in charge of sensitive claims tried to blame her when a report containing medical information was altered. Instead, it was ACC that had censored important details from a psychiatrist's report about the rape and incest client.
When the client asked ACC last month to immediately correct the doctored document, the corporation said it would get back to her in 10 days' time. On Friday, ACC said its sensitive claims unit branch medical adviser, Peter Dodwell, would send a written apology to the rape victim for causing distress by trying to blame her for altering the medical report. The apology was received later the same day.
The senior ACC staffers involved in the botch-up were Dr Dodwell, and ACC team manager Karmal Mark. Dr Dodwell was asked by ACC to assess a medication claim from the client for treatment for complex mental health issues arising from her accepted ACC claim following years of systemic sexual abuse. But half of the psychiatrist's report was deleted by ACC and the psychiatrist's signature was cut and pasted from another page. The word "abridged" was inserted above Ms Mark's contact details before the report was sent to Dr Dodwell.
The censored material included descriptions of complex conditions that the client suffers from, the fact she required a combination of treatments, and that treatment was beyond a GP's expertise.
After receiving the report, Dr Dodwell wrote: "A line appears to have been deleted ... presumably by the claimant.
"Censorship of medical reports by a claimant is not acceptable and appears to breach the trust ACC demonstrated in allowing the claimant to bar direct contact with treatment providers."
The psychiatrist "clearly wrote something he considered significant to her management", Dr Dodwell said.
When The Dominion Post questioned ACC about the altered report, they delayed replying while they went back to the psychiatrist to confirm his original report was different to the abridged version. The psychiatrist confirmed the full report was his, not the abridged version, and told ACC: "I have now confirmed this on three occasions to ACC. I trust three confirmations are adequate".
Finally, on Friday the corporation confirmed to The Dominion Post that a letter of apology would be sent to the client.
The sensitive claims unit client said it was typical of ACC to make thinly veiled accusations of what could amount to criminal behaviour against clients but she provided documents showing ACC changed the report, not her.
The debacle "is more than outrageous, it is criminal and yet they have had the audacity to blame me for tampering with a medical report".
"I'm appalled, disgusted and very distressed and angry. I am so damn angry about it ... this is quite simply not acceptable," the woman said.
The woman is involved in a separate battle, with ACC having previously accused her of forgery. She said she would vigorously defend the case in court.
In an email, ACC complaints investigator Julie Phillips told the client she needed evidence and information from both sides for her inquiry. The client - who wishes to remain anonymous and has permanent name suppression - said that was rich considering ACC did not bother contacting her to ask if she had changed the medical report before making serious allegations.
Before being appointed medical adviser for the ACC unit dealing with its most sensitive cases, Dr Dodwell was sacked from his job in Australia. In March 2008, he was dismissed from his role as chief medical officer at HealthQuest, a medical screening body for bureaucrats, after he passed on information about a teacher applying for a job. An investigation by a former New South Wales deputy police commissioner David Madden said Dr Dodwell tried to adversely affect a decision to employ the teacher by saying she was being investigated by police for defamatory website postings about him.
"The way in which he [Dodwell] went about informing the Department of Education was inappropriate and not reasonable behaviour of a public official," the Madden report said.

10 May 2012

ACC doc gets apology for factual errors

An article from New Zealand Doctor by Katie Marriner

The medical advisor for the ACC sensitive claims unit has received an apology from a national newspaper after it published errors about his employment history.
Among other apologies, the correction stated that Peter Dodwell resigned as principal officer for the Civil Aviation Authority in 1998, not after an adverse 2001 report as the original story had said.
The correction was published on www.nzherald.co.nz at the end of a story published on 15 April.

Read the correction here.

15 April 2012

Legal row over ACC blog

An article from Stuff by Kirsty Johnston

A senior medical officer in ACC's sensitive claims unit has made legal threats to a blogger who posted information about his employment history, in the wake of a mass privacy breach.
Peter Dodwell, the branch medical advisor of the unit that deals with rape and abuse victims, was fired from his previous job in Australia over a privacy issue.
Both Dodwell and ACC's senior medical advisor, Peter Jansen, have threatened legal action against blogger Kyle Macdonald, a psychotherapist who regularly speaks out against the corporation.
The revelations come as the Auditor General prepares to investigate ACC's governance, adding to an inquiry by the Privacy Commissioner into a breach that saw 6000 patient files - including 131 from the sensitive claims unit - released to claimant Bronwyn Pullar.
Documents show that in March 2008 Dodwell was sacked from his role as chief medical officer at HealthQuest, the medical screening body for all public servants in Australia, after an internal investigation into his behaviour. The investigator, former NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Madden, found Dodwell had inappropriately passed on information to the Education Department about a teacher it intended employing, saying she was being investigated by police for defamatory website postings about him.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, there was no evidence the teacher was being investigated by police.
Madden said Dodwell passed on the information in an attempt to adversely influence the department's decision to employ her.
"The way in which he [ Dodwell] went about informing the Department of Education was inappropriate and not reasonable behaviour of a public official," the report said.
Madden said the teacher had no opportunity to defend herself against Dodwell's claims, and he should be disciplined for breaching privacy restrictions. He was later fired.
After Mr MacDonald posted a link to the SMH story, and an opinion of its contents on his blog, he received a letter from Dodwell's lawyer requesting parts be changed or removed because they were defamatory. The letter was similar to one MacDonald received from Jansen in 2010 about a defamatory blog post and tweet, which he removed for fear of legal action.
Jansen was the senior ACC manager at the centre of another defamation case last year, involving a blogger who was also claimant of the Sensitive Claims Unit. The blogger, known as Jax, was under the police witness protection programme for sexual abuse at the time, and alleged her ACC file had been accessed by someone within ACC in order to find her contact details.
MacDonald said the threats against him, in his view, were another example of how ACC bullied critics and "whistleblowers" who had genuine concerns about the organisation.
Dodwell was hired to provide expert opinion about claims and treatment decisions, he said.
"I thought the information should be in the public domain, given someone with that kind of history is in a clinical role. The reality is that it's a political position, so the public have a right to express their views."
MacDonald said the fact Dodwell had a history with privacy issues was important given the recent breach and his role in sensitive claims.
"Privacy is important for people with a sensitive claim. Lack of it can cause emotional harm, but it can also be dangerous for people who are in hiding because of sexual abuse," he said.
In a statement, an ACC spokeswoman said: "The importance of confidentiality is vital to the good faith employment relationships between ACC and its staff. Consequently it would be inappropriate for ACC to comment on any individuals employment matters."
But ACC said that Dodwell had provided a complete CV to ACC when he applied for the job.
Dodwell himself said he disclosed, directly to his ACC manager, details of the matter that led to his dismissal in Australia.
As for the legal action, ACC said it had no role when an employee "acting independently or out of personal motives" initiated legal communications, proceedings or actions with an external party.
Dodwell argued there was no legal action "either taken or threatened".
"The letter acquainted Mr MacDonald with inaccuracies in his article, and invited him either to remove certain specified passages or to amend his article to reflect the true situation," he said.
Jansen said the material on McDonald's blog "seriously defamed" him. He wouldn't answer a question asking if he thought his actions were appropriate.

ACC adviser's shaky past

An article from the Herald on Sunday by Joanne Carroll

The medical adviser for the ACC sensitive claims unit left two previous jobs amid controversy.
Dr Peter Dodwell resigned as principal medical officer for the Civil Aviation Authority after a report found an unacceptably high error rate in decisions whether or not to clear pilots as medically fit to fly planes. The Scott-Gorman report into medical certificates for pilots also alleged the process for initially appointing doctors, supervised by Dodwell, had been "flawed from the outset".
Dodwell sought a judicial review against the CAA for failing to give him an opportunity to respond to the damning report. CAA director John Jones later apologised to Dodwell as part of an out-of-court settlement.
The ACC sensitive-claims unit has been part of a scandal involving thousands of claimants' details being mistakenly released to another claimant by email. Minister for ACC Judith Collins refused to comment on Dodwell's appointment, saying employment matters were the responsibility of ACC. Spokeswoman Stephanie Melville declined to answer questions about whether ACC was aware of the previous controversies before employing Dodwell. Dodwell went on to work in health in NSW, but was reportedly sacked in 2008.
This week, blogger Kyle MacDonald was forced to edit a post which contained information about Dodwell's employment history after legal threats. MacDonald said the post was changed after legal counsel for Dodwell expressed concerns about the impact of the post on his ongoing professional reputation. The blog had posted a link and comment from a Sydney Morning Herald article about Dodwell's departure from Healthquest.
Dodwell was sacked for communicating inappropriately with the Education Board about a teacher it intended to employ. An investigation by the former NSW Police deputy police commissioner David Madden found Dodwell inappropriately passed on information regarding the teacher - who had been found fit for duty by HealthQuest in 2006 - to the Education Department in an attempt to adversely influence its decision to employ her.
Madden found two of the five allegations made by the teacher against Dodwell were substantiated. An independent review by former magistrate John Heagney supported the Madden findings. The teacher was medically retired after being declared unfit for duty, a decision overturned by the Medical Appeals Panel five months later.
Madden said the teacher had had no opportunity to defend herself against Dodwell's claims and he should be disciplined for breaching privacy restrictions. To date he he has not been the subject of any tribunal proceedings in Australia.
Dodwell has indicated that there are two sides to the story of his departure from the CAA but did not respond to requests for comment this week.