Four Corners: Aug 25

Next Monday on Four Corners Tracey Bowden reports on how a cocaine-addicted surgeon banned from a public hospital was able to keep working in the private system.

He was a highly paid neurosurgeon, addicted to cocaine and obsessed with sex. Yet despite significant evidence he was running out of control, and the death of a call girl he’d hired, Suresh Nair continued operating in a private hospital.

Although they didn’t know it at the time, in effect his patients were playing a kind of medical Russian roulette. Several were left with ongoing major problems. In one case Suresh Nair operated on the wrong vertebrae. The operation has left his patient with a crippling back problem.

This week Four Corners reporter Tracy Bowden deconstructs the sordid history of Suresh Nair. In forensic detail she analyses what the NSW Medical Board, Nepean Public Hospital and the Nepean Private Hospital knew about the rogue doctor.

She investigates how a system with so many apparent checks and balances could allow a doctor to be banned from a public hospital but continue to operate at the private hospital right next door.

The program reveals an explosive paper trail between authorities that calls into question the regulatory system intended to make surgery safe for the public.

Monday 25th August at 8.30pm ABC.

Photo: stock image.