Advocacy project objective 2: Provide evidence, the HDC is providing protection to medical practitioners and expose their possible conspiracy to obstruct justice, and their failure to identify patient Code of Rights breaches. As such, the HDC can be held liable as an accessory to patient deaths/injuries.

We published cholecystectomy patients’ complaints to the HDC, in an investigation to expose:

  • The policies, actions and omissions of the HDC and their highly skilled legal team and their failure to investigate Code of Rights breaches and criminal actions of medical professionals and DHB service providers, in accordance with their statutory duty to protect health consumers.
  • Patient legal rights not enforced and breaches covered up, including:
    • Right to make an informed choice with an absence of deception and the concealment of side effect risks or alternative treatment options
    • Right to have services provided in a manner that minimises the potential harm to, and optimises the quality of life of, that consumer
    • Services that comply with legal, professional and ethical standards, with an absence of coercion or exploitation
    • Right to be treated with respect
  • Patient autonomy was violated to protect New Zealand laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeons’ perceived right to practice clinical freedom (do as the like), resulting in patients being harmed and deaths occurring without meaningful accountability. There are several instances of repeat offending and even unethical human experimentation that violates the core principles of medical ethics and patient autonomy being given a free pass. Furthermore, affected patients were never contacted to followed up with, going against everything that the Cartwright inquiry intended to eliminate.