The Wislang Case

The Wislang case 2004 has drawn a cautioning from Dr Jonathan Coates, barrister and professor at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, who advises great care in the bringing and conduct of disciplinary proceedings against health practitioners before the relevent disciplinary tribunal of New Zealand.

He does this in an article (available from our Files section) in which he calls for strict observance of the well established procedures under which administrative tribunals must operate to protect their decisions from successful judicial review; and impliedly, to achieve just results. Dr Coates' article admits to being only a superficial treatment of the subject, but it is especially interesting that the problems encountered in the Wislang case appear to have triggered his publication of this article.

I am aware of a 2003 NZ Media report which comments upon another unrelated case or health professional. This was apparently in relation to another incident where a NZ patient voiced misconduct allegations, and that a complaint to the professional's disciplinary body lapsed due to procedural irregularities.

As someone very confused and not familiar with legal matters - I know I am also deeply concerned about a judgement issued last week from a Wellington High Court which appears associated with this other case taken to the Privy Council within the last decade.

It appears that a book written to discuss the victims story and some of these matters - has been ordered destroyed. Also possibly that an order suppressing the proceedings remains in force for nine months. I'm not sure if this means last weeks judgement will be released in 2007 when the High Court website permits? I am also not sure if the author will be lodging an Appeal against the professional at this time as this depends on this widow fundraising  etc

In another NZ Media Report this week I have also noted that another prominent health professional is being investigated by an overseas Professional Disciplinary body now. It was also noted that the NZ Medical Authorities chose not to apparently.