Sam Behzadi said he experienced a sudden loss of motor function in his feet and was unable to walk, requiring help from a member of the public, after giving blood at Awanui Labs in Onehunga in March.<\/p>\n
The good Samaritan went back into the lab to seek help, Behzadi said, and a nurse and senior manager came outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me my condition was not related to the blood test, and I should return home and call an ambulance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t walk, so the member of the public drove me home and my wife took me to hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behzadi spent eight weeks in hospital and was diagnosed with a spinal stroke associated with spinal injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt left me questioning the clinical response and more broadly, the responsibility of healthcare practitioners to appropriately assess and respond when a person presents with acute and serious medical conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have expected the response to be focused first and foremost on ensuring the immediate safety of a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awanui labs\u2019 chief operations officer Nick Champness said Awanui staff were trained to respond to medical events at the centres and teams assisted patients experiencing adverse reactions including fainting or other medical episodes.<\/p>\n
In Behzadi\u2019s case, two staff members went outside to help \u2013 but his symptoms were outside the scope of their clinical training and expertise, Champness said. The staff went to the neighbouring medical centre for additional help.<\/p>\n
He said incident record notes had shown medical centre staff at The Doctors Onehunga suggested Behzadi go home and call an ambulance rather than Awanui staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we don\u2019t have further information about the circumstances of the medical event, we can confirm that our staff responded to a request for assistance and sought additional medical support when the situation presented was beyond their scope of clinical practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
General manager of The Doctors, Wayne Woolrich said his team member\u2019s recollection differed from Behzadi\u2019s and the lab workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team member recalled going to the individual\u2019s car and offering to provide an assessment in the clinic and offering to call an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolrich said the team member noted they were given \u201climited information\u201d by Behzadi and the lab staff member and did not know a medical event occurred.<\/p>\n
Behzadi claims while staff approached the car, they stayed five metres away and did not help or ask what he was experiencing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t approach me or carry out any physical examination.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is a healthcare worker expected to do in a medical emergency?<\/p>\n
Dr Ken Clark is chairman of the Medical Council, the official body responsible for regulating doctors \u2013 making sure they\u2019re \u201ccompetent and fit to practise\u201d \u2013 to protect the health and safety of the public.<\/p>\n
Doctors had an ethical obligation to respond promptly if needed, he said.<\/p>\n
If they chose not to attend, they needed to be able to justify their decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood Medical Practice provides additional information for doctors in an emergency, that they should offer to help, taking account of their own safety, competence and the availability of other options for care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s standards only applied to doctors, Clark said, while the Nursing Council advised on nurses\u2019 obligations and healthcare providers on reception staff and clinic procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take seriously any concerns about a doctor\u2019s competence, conduct or fitness to practise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcerns about the care or treatment a person received can be raised with the Health and Disability Commissioner. HDC can refer matters to Council where concerns about a doctor require our consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone concerned about a doctor\u2019s competence, conduct or fitness to practise could notify the council using an online form on its website.<\/p>\n
The Nursing Council said its job was to regulate nurses and set standards of practice and conduct expected of the profession.<\/p>\n
Its code of conduct included an expectation that nurses offer assistance in an emergency, taking into account competence, safety and the availability of other options.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether a nurse\u2019s actions were appropriate in a particular circumstance depends on the specific facts of the situation,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would not be appropriate for the Council to comment on an individual case or hypothetical scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Behzadi said he experienced a sudden loss of motor function in his feet and was unable to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[192,2837,25021,15974,134,527,5838,3523,25020,111,139,69,304036,61,4478,197],"class_list":["post-617236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-are","tag-during","tag-earley","tag-emergency","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-help","tag-medical","tag-melanie","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-obligated","tag-to","tag-workers","tag-you"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}