Qld: Doctors access to restricted drugs too great, says coroner

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-1999
Qld: Doctors access to restricted drugs too great, says coroner

BRISBANE, Dec 15 AAP - Tighter controls should be placed on doctors' access to restricted
drugs, a Brisbane coroner recommended today.

Coroner Michael Halliday was presenting his findings in the inquest of high profile
and controversial pregnancy termination specialist Dr Peter John Bayliss, 70.

Dr Bayliss died after collapsing at his New Farm home in inner city Brisbane on March
30 this year.

He died from hardening of the coronary arteries as a consequence of drug toxicity.

The inquest was told he took increasingly large amounts of the sleep inducing drug
Normison as he had suffered from a severe sleep disorder for well over 20 years.

On the evening of his death he returned home and complained to his partner of 24 years,
Claudia McEwan, that he was not feeling well and was going to take some "sleepers".

The inquest was told that Dr Bayliss bought Normison in bulk for his clinic and took
supplies home for himself and Ms McEwan, without prescriptions.

"It is disconcerting to say the least that a medical practitioner can obtain such medication
for himself and his partner without the requirement of a prescription," Mr Halliday said.

Normison is considered to be an addictive drug and is classified as being "restricted".

Mr Halliday recommended that the relevant government agency conduct a review of the
availablility of addictive and restrictive drugs with a view that they only be available
on prescription.

He also recommended that the Queensland Medical Board consider introducing a code of
conduct restricting medical practitioners from issuing addictive and prescriptive drugs
to themselves and their families.

Ms McEwan told the inquest she had found Dr Bayliss collapsed on a landing, mumbling.

She dragged him back to his bedroom and had gone to check on him two to three times after this.

On the last occasion she called an ambulance after discovering his fingertips had started
to turn blue and he was not breathing, but he was dead by the time they arrived.

There had been a similar episode three weeks previously when she had called the ambulance
and Dr Bayliss had verbally abused her as a result.

Dr Bayliss first achieved notoriety in the 1970's for running one of the few medical
clinics which performed abortions in Queensland.

At the time of his death Dr Bayliss had been suspended from medical practice by the
Medical Assessment Tribunal because of an incident at his clinic where a young woman,
who had an abortion lapsed into a permanent vegetative state.

AAP smk/rad/arb/br

KEYWORD: BAYLISS (CARRIED EARLIER)

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