Dr Dennis Pyne - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

AFTER BEING locked out of his office, having over 300 patient files confiscated and being interdicted from duties on quarter salary, Dr Dennis Anthony Pyne, consultant general thoracic and general vascular surgeon, is fiercely defending his professional integrity.

Pyne is at the centre of a damning report on operations at the National Chest Hospital (NCH), in Barbican, St Andrew, where he worked from March 2004 to July 14, 2008, when his interdiction took effect, "pending the outcome of disciplinary proceedings".

"I won't tell you that I am not affected; it hurts me terribly, my reputation is damaged," a stunned Pyne told The Sunday Gleaner, months after the release of a report with damning accusations against him.

"I have seen a drastic reduction in patients. Even some of my trusted patients do not want to see me anymore; but the loyal ones still come," said Pyne, hesitating before blasting the report by a seven-member team and describing it as "rotten and totally biased".

contracted to SERHA

Registered with the Medical Council of Jamaica in 1970 when he graduated from the University of the West Indies, Dr Pyne was contracted by the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), the body responsible for the delivery of health-care services in the south-eastern section of the island.

However, last year, the health ministry ordered a probe into allegations by patients at the NCH that the senior surgeon was charging them for services, even though the ministry had abolished user fees since April. Further, there were concerns about ethical procedures and use of equipment in the hospital's operating theatres.

"They (SERHA) have put me on interdiction and are paying me a mere 25 per cent of my salary. How long this will continue?" he asks. "I don't know."

According to the doctor, who says he can easily perform eight or nine successful thoracotomies (opening up the chest) in one day, the manner in which the review was done, along with the treatment meted out to him, was "unprofessional and unfair".

"To date, I have not seen the review; it is all over the media, and I have not seen it. I have made several attempts to speak with the minister of health, even before the commission was set up, but he has not responded, Pyne says.

He shares correspondence with The Sunday Gleaner of letters written by his attorneys to Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer "for an urgent meeting to discuss our client's uncertain future", but, to date, he has not made himself available.

The surgeon is particularly peeved at allegations in the report that he has been charging fees to see public patients, and explains how this misconception may have arisen.

"Like most of my colleagues, I buy my own equipment, especially in cases where the hospital is ill-equipped.

"The Government cannot afford to buy enough staples at National Chest Hospital. These are used to hold the chest cavity when it is opened and is the standard of care in performing any thoracotomy in 2009 and before," he relates.

On many occasions, Pyne says, he has had to ask patients to pay up to $100,000, and this is heavily discounted, for staples which he says Government does not provide most of the time.

"I discuss this with the patients before the surgery and have them sign a disclaimer which states that the charge is for the product which the hospital does not have. Two copies are made, one for the files and one for the patient," Pyne explains.

"To say that I am using Government's resources to treat my private patients is a fatal mistake. This is nastiness and it must stop," Pyne exclaims.

In the meantime, the Association of Government Medical Consultants, of which Pyne is an automatic member, has voiced its strong and unanimous objection to the manner in which the review was conducted.

"We are saying that the process was flawed. We are not making judgement about the allegations, but we think that the matter was not investigated properly. Hence, the proper conclusions were likely not drawn," President of the association, Dr Orville Morgan, tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Pyne is adamant that the committee was not set up to give an independent and fair review.

"No investigation or enquiry took place. It is Dr Pyne who is on trial under the guise of a National Chest Hospital probe," he says bitterly.

under pressure

On the issue of unethical conduct for which he was also blacklisted by the report, the doctor, who admits to being under undue pressure, says he does not know what that is all about.

"That allegation is absolutely not true. I have never coerced any public patient to see me privately," he declares, explaining that under staff orders or private-practice privilege subject to professional guidelines, a doctor may see up to 25 per cent of his patient load as private.

"Only five per cent of my patients are private," Pyne declares.

Retired accountant Hyacinth Franklyn, one of Pyne's private patients since 2007, lauds him as a good doctor.

"I was referred to him by another consultant. He has operated on me three times and all went well. I was in his office up to last Thursday. The thing is, Dr Pyne does not sugar-coat issues, and some persons might have problems with that," she states.

The doctor, who last year performed over 300 chest surgeries, says he wants to be exonerated and is demanding an apology from Health Minister Rudyard Spencer.

lovelette.brooks@gleanerjm.com