The National Chest Hospital in Barbican, St Andrew, is the only medical facility in the island that specifically treats patients with chest-related illnesses. It has been under probe since last year regarding a number of patient complaints and alleged misconduct by Dr Dennis Pyne. - Contributed

THE DOCTOR at the centre of the National Chest Hospital controversy is challenging the health ministry to fault the performance of his team which, he says, increased the number of surgeries and reduced mortality rates at the facility.

Dr Dennis Pyne, consultant general thoracic and general vascular surgeon, who is under fire for allegedly breaching several rules and endangering the lives of patients, has defended the work of doctors at the facility from 2004 to mid-2008, pointing to the major thoracic surgeries conducted.

Figures obtained by the The Gleaner and verified by Dr Mikael Tulloch-Reid, senior medical officer (SMO) of the National Chest Hospital (NCH), show a more than 150 per cent increase in the number of major thoracic surgeries between 2003 and 2004.

Over that period, the mortality rate fell dramatically from 39 per cent to nine.

"When the inquiry began into the alleged cases of misconduct against Pyne, I requested those figures from the hospital's medical records department for a hearing in 2008," Tulloch-Reid explained.

The SMO, however, said he could not comment on the statistics and referred The Gleaner to Pyne, who, he said, was the only thoracic surgeon on staff at the hospital from early 2004 to late 2007.

Could be explained

Catherine Gregory, former regional director of the South East Regional Health Authority (SEHRA), under which the hospital is administered, said the increase in the number of major thoracic surgeries could be explained through a shared service that the NHC had with the University Hospital of The West Indies (UHWI).

"At the time, we had an arrangement for some patients requiring surgery to do procedures at the UHWI. Also, we did not have a thoracic surgeon at the hospital," she said.

According to Pyne, the hospital was in bad shape when he started working there and, along with Tulloch-Reid and his team, they "cleaned up the system".

The senior surgeon said that "The NCH is the best thoracic facility in the Caribbean by far, and is also a teaching hospital, but there were problems. As soon as things began to change, this thing (inquiry) started," Pyne told The Gleaner.

In 2004, while working in Canada, Pyne was questioned about allegations of professional misconduct.

According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, Pyne "practised while knowing that he had deficient clinical ability; he committed an act of omission relevant to the practice of medicine that, having regard to all the circumstances, would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional".

Pyne admitted all the allegations, but said they were all cleared up before he was contracted by SERHA.

lovellette.brooks@gleanerjm.com