A Shellharbour woman has mixed feelings about the fact the doctor who scarred her for life has had his registration cancelled this week.
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Wollongong GP Dr Jeremy Reader was found guilty of professional misconduct in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal over his treatment of nine Illawarra patients for skin complaints.
Dr Reader, formerly of Wollongong Skin Cancer Clinic, was struck off the register of health professionals and banned from applying for reinstatement for 12 months.
‘’As one of his victims I’m grateful he’s had his registration cancelled,’’ Shellharbour’s Janelle Trigg said, ‘’but I’m sceptical of the fact he could go and apply to have it returned in a year.
‘’I don’t want anyone to ever again have to go through what I did. My physical scars are obvious every time I look in the mirror; my emotional scars will never heal.’’
Ms Trigg has had three operations to correct the ‘’ditch’’ in her nose caused by the removal of a tiny non-cancerous spot by Dr Reader in mid-2011.
My physical scars are obvious ... my emotional scars will never heal.
- Janelle Trigg, victim
Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward drew attention to her plight when he aired her story in state parliament in June 2014. In October that year he gave details in parliament of other patients who had been disfigured.
‘’One of the reasons I stood up in parliament was because there were people who didn’t have a voice, who couldn’t afford the legal advice necessary,’’ Mr Ward said.
‘’I'm glad they got the outcome they deserved. I will now continue to campaign for tougher regulation in relation to skin cancer clinics.’’
The Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted Dr Reader in the tribunal in October, claiming his treatment of the nine patients was ‘’significantly below the standard expected’’.
The tribunal heard that Dr Reader had in several cases failed to inform patients about possible scarring or refer them to appropriate specialists.
In one case an expert relied on by the HCCC said Dr Reader had performed a ‘’sub-optimal excision’’ of a tumour on a patient’s lip which had resulted in an ‘’ugly deformity’’ and in her ‘’lip functioning poorly’’.
The expert was also critical of Dr Reader’s conduct in another case, where the patient claimed he was not informed that the scar would be ‘’10 times bigger than what he expected’’.