Former PSR director to pay doctor $2 million after not reading his defence before referral to investigation committee
A court has ordered a former PSR director to pay almost $2 million to an ophthalmologist after finding she did not read his written defence before sending him to a committee.
The Supreme Court of Queensland heard that O&G Professor Julie Quinlivan, the PSR director from 2017 to 2022, referred Dr David Kitchen to a PSR committee in 2018 just 17 minutes after her staff sent his 96-page submission to her.
Last month, Justice Rebecca Treston found that Professor Quinlivan had not read the submission before the referral, meaning she had failed to follow the Health Insurance Act.
While Professor Quinlivan argued she had separately printed off the submission and read it four days before it was emailed to her, Justice Treston found “no documentary evidence” to support this, concluding that Professor Quinlivan had not read the submission “properly or at all”.
