The doctor embroiled in a scandal surrounding a spate of baby deaths at a Victorian hospital has reportedly defended himself and other doctors who worked for him.
The former head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Bacchus Marsh Hospital, Surinder Parhar, told Fairfax Media he had been "unfairly targeted and that he wanted to move on".
A review of 10 neo-natal deaths at Djerriwarrh Health Service between 2013 and 2014 found seven could have been avoided.
More families have since come forward about the deaths of their children.
"Nobody wants to harm anybody," Dr Parhar is quoted as saying.
"That goes against the grain for everybody in the profession. You do your best in the circumstances."
Dr Surinder Parhar blamed the pressures of a booming population, staffing issues and GPs referring pregnancies to his hospital for findings that babies had needlessly died while he was head of Bacchus Marsh and Melton Regional Hospital’s obstetrics unit, adding, "no system is perfect".
Dr Parhar said he had provided a service to the community for 35 years and the doctors who reported to him had been competent.
Despite questions raised about the care delivered under his watch, Dr Parhar said he and his team frequently reviewed things that went wrong to improve their practice and tried to manage high-risk women appropriately.
Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy last year sacked the Djerriwarrh board, replacing it with an administrator
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency — which last year restricted Dr Parhar’s medical registration over concerns of his treatment of a 2013 patient — said it could not disclose details of its investigation into events surrounding numerous medical staff at Bacchus Marsh.
“Our investigations are continuing and there is nothing more important than making sure these continue to be thorough and fair,” an AHPRA statement said.
As well as Dr Parhar’s departure, the hospital’s board was sacked in the wake of the scandal while CEO Bruce Marshall was among a handful of senior staff who also departed after the extent of peri-natal deaths came to light.
As revealed by the Fairfax media last year, the hospital’s new administrator Dr John Ballard said incidents reported to Mr Marshall may have been inappropriately categorised at a lower level and were therefore never forwarded to authorities for closer scrutiny, denying chances to avoid further tragedies.
It was also found Bacchus Marsh Hospital had been operating without a safety committee and instead risk warnings were sent directly to the CEO who did not always pass them on to the board.
