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DoCS Allegation:

November 30 1998

Letter received from the Health Insurance Commission presenting documents confirming that from the 21^stMarch 1994 to the 20^th July 1998 Mrs. Flynn had received a medical service from 54 medical practitioners and Anthony from 67 (See DoCS internal review report page 9)

Critical analysis findings:

Chart Illustrating the number of Medical Practitioners by specialty consulted by Gaye Flynn during 21^st March 1994 to 20^th July 1998
Name of Doctor seen by Mrs Flynn	Specialty of doctor	Location of doctor	Referring Agent
Dr Vozzo	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Mazzeferro	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Rozea	Locum General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Chakty	Locum General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Clarkson	Locum General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Watson	General Practitioner/ Naturopath	Total Therapies. Kogarah
Dr Zabow	General Practitioner	Immediate Health Care. Randwick
Dr D Wakefield	Immunologist	Prince of Wales	Dr. Vozzo GP
Dr M Thomas	Gastro-enterology	Prince of Wales	Dr Wakefield (Immunology POW)
Dr Harmston	Gynaecology		Dr Vozzo GP
Dr Garvan	Orthopaedics		Dr Vozzo (GP)
Dr Sullivan	Orthopaedics	St Vincent’s Private	Dr Mazzeferro (GP)
Dr Loefler	Orthopaedics	Prince of Wales	Dr Sonnabend
Dr Graham	Vascular Surgery	St Vincent’s Private	Dr Sullivan (orthopaedics)
Dr Cooper	Anaesthetics
Dr Meyer	Anaesthetics
Dr Hill	Anaesthetics
Dr Seelan	Radiology		Dr Rozea (GP)
Dr Light	Radiology		Dr Chakty (GP)
Dr Broderick	Radiology		Dr Slater
Dr Phillips	Radiology		Dr Loefler (orthopaedics POW)
Dr Fain	Radiology		Dr Mazzaferro (GP)
Dr Adler	Radiology		Dr Garvan (Orthopaedics Miranda)
Dr Rossleigh	Radiology		Dr Wakefield (Immunology POW)
Dr Linklater	Radiology		Dr Sullivan (Orthopaedics St. Vincent’s)
Prof. Chesterman	Pathology		Dr. Wakefield (Immunology POW)
Dr. Naidoo	Pathology		Dr Wakefield (Immunology POW)
Dr Singh	Pathology		Dr. Rozea (GP)
Dr Crouch	Histopathology		Dr Thomas (Gastro-enterology POW)
Dr Maynard	Pathology		Dr Harmston (Gynaecology)
Dr Gatus	Pathology		Dr Loefler (Orthopaedics POW)
Dr Murray-Nobbs	Pathology		Dr Vozzo (GP)
Dr Laverty	Pathology		Dr Harmston (Gynaecology)
Dr Clark	Pathology		Dr Vozzo (GP)
Dr. Miglini	Pathology		Dr Mazzaferro (GP)
Dr Survela	Pathology		Dr Vozzo (GP)
Dr Ellis	Pathology		Dr Wakefield (Immunology POW)

Total: 37

Optometrist: Mr Ian Sinclair Total 1

Results

Total number of medical practitioners for which a Medicare claim was lodged = 37doctors plus one optometrist, making a total of 38 health practitioners. This contrasts with the DoCS allegation of 54.

Of those 37 doctors, only 14 are treating doctors. The remaining 23 medical practitioners are what is known as procedural specialists and consist of radiologists, pathologists and anaesthetists.

Of the 14 treating doctors, five are general practitioners in Helensburgh Health Clinic, and the remaining 9 practitioners are from 5 specialty fields.

Chart Illustrating the number of Medical Practitioners by specialty consulted by Anthony Flynn during 21^st March 1994 to 20^th July 1998
Name of Doctor seen by Anthony Flynn	Specialty of doctor	Location of doctor	Referring Agent
Dr Vozzo	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Mazzaferro	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Rozea	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Chakty	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Clarkson	General Practitioner	Helensburgh Health Clinic
Dr Bennett	General Practitioner	Ulladulla	On holiday
Dr Watson	General Practitioner Naturopath	Total Therapies Kogarah
Dr Mitchell	Gastro-enterologist	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Cambell
Dr Wise	Neurologist	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Mitchell (SCH)
Dr B Currie	Surgeon	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Mitchell (SCH)
Dr Morton	Respiratory Specialist	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Mitchell (SCH)
Dr Ziegler	Immunologist	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Mitchell (SCH)
Dr Christine Hughes	Paediatrician	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Mitchell (SCH)
Dr Bohane	Gastro-enterologist	Sydney Children’s Hospital	Dr Christine Hughes
Dr Kelly	Anaethaetist	Sydney Children’s Hospital
Dr Hill	Anaethaetist	Sydney Children’s Hospital
Dr Elliot	Orthopaedics	Wollongong Hospital
Dr Gaskin	Gastro-enterologist	New Children’s Hospital. Westmead	Dr Vozzo
Dr Kamath	Gastro-enterologist	New Children’s Hospital. Westmead	Dr. Christine Hughes
Dr Kearney	Paediatrician	New Children’s Hospital, Westmead	Dr Vozzo
Dr Light	Radiology		Dr. Vozzo (GP)
Dr Leighton	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Van Rooijen	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Nayanar	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Phillips	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Kociumbas	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Beeby	Radiology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Pereira	Radiology		Dr Gibbeson
Dr De Silva	Radiology		Dr Kamath
Dr Singh	Pathology
Prof. Chesterman	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Naidoo	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Gatus	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Orchard	Pathology		Dr Vozzo
Dr Colagiuiri	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Gothelf	Pathology
Dr Gatus	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Tobias	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Bourne.	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Wakefield.	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Isaacs	Pathology		Dr Ziegler
Dr Charlesworth	Pathology		Dr Mitchell
Dr Miglani	Pathology		Dr Vozzo
Dr Crouch	Pathology		Dr Hughes
Dr Howard	Pathology		Dr Kamath
Dr Clark	Pathology		Dr Mazzaferro
Dr Johnston	Electroenephalpgraphy		Dr Mitchell
Dr Burke	Electroenephalpgraphy		Dr Mitchell
Dr Isert Can’t remember seeing this doctor

Results
Total number of doctors that Anthony saw was 49 and not 67 as alleged by DoCS.

Of these, only 18 actually examined Anthony. Five of these doctors work in Helensburgh Health Clinic and seven of the doctors were from Sydney Children’s Hospital. Of these s.even doctors, all of these referrals were made by Dr John Mitchell except for one made by Dr Christine Hughes.

Anthony saw three doctors from the New Children’s Hospital, and two of these were referrals from Dr Hughes that were sanctioned by Dr Bruce Currie at Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Lastly, only three doctors were not affiliated with SCH, NCH or Helensburgh Health Clinic. Two of the consults occurred whilst we were on holiday, and one was a consult with a doctor who specialises in holistic medicine.

Of the remaining medical practitioners, all 31 medical practitioners are what is known as procedural specialists and did not actively treat Anthony. These procedural specialists consist of 9 radiologists, 17 pathologists and one medical practitioner remains unknown to the Flynns. As the HIC document clearly shows, most of Anthony’s referrals were for medical imaging and pathology and were made for Anthony by Dr. Mitchell at SCH.

Conclusion:

Allowing for Mrs Flynn’s auto-immune diseases of Sjorgen’s syndrome, Bechet’s syndrome and severe Sicca disease (that is documented in Mrs Flynn’s medical file, the documentation of which is supported in a letter by Kate Ryder, the Patient Support Officer., HCCC) ; her arthritis, her broken ankle, her pre-cancerous bowel polyp and her RSD, the remaining nine doctors cannot be interpreted as being excessive or as being examples of doctor shopping as all of the referrals were made by the same few doctors.

It is our summation that the reviewers sought to discredit Mrs Flynn by wrongly concluding that Mrs Flynn received a medical service from ‘54 medical practitioners’. Not only did the Corrimal DoCS’s officer calculate the wrong number of medical practitioners during the specified period, which was not picked up by the reviewers; But by writing ‘medical practitioners’ and not specifying that most of these medical practitioners are procedural specialists such as radiologist, anaesthetists, and pathologists; they attempted to create the impression that Mrs Flynn had seen an excessive number of treating medical practitioners.

In addition, the internal review does not specify that this number of medical practitioners was derived from raw data received from the Health Insurance Commission and sought to deceive the reader into thinking that this was the summation of the Health Insurance Commission. This is simply an unacceptable practice and brings into the question the motivation of the Corrimal DoCS officers and more importantly the DoCS internal reviewers (if in fact they wrote this entry in the final report?) in this matter.

The above analysis is not consistent with the idea that Mrs Flynn took her child to a number of doctors unnecessarily as alleged in Anthony’s notification to DoCS. Nor is it consistent with any notion that Mrs Flynn participated in doctor shopping or the abuse of medical services.

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