Updated
A Melbourne coroner wants a study conducted on the feasibility of a hotline for doctors who believe their patients are trapped by domestic violence.
The recommendation follows the death of Lynette Phillips, 28, at the hands of her violent ex-boyfriend, former champion skateboarder Ben Pappas.
Eight days after Ms Phillips's battered body was found in the Yarra River in 2007, Pappas killed himself.
The coroner, Judge Jennifer Coate, found the doctor who had been treating them both knew about the violence in their relationship and two intervention orders.
The court was told she and Pappas had a violent relationship that was plagued by drug abuse and that an intervention order was in place when Ms Phillips died.
Judge Coate found Pappas caused her death before taking his own life.
The finding came as a relief to Ms Phillips's sister, Wendy.
"For the last nearly six years, really all I wanted to hear was that Ben Pappas was responsible for killing my sister, and when I got that, that was relief," she said.
In the years and months before their deaths, Ms Phillips and Pappas had both been seeing the same GP, Dr Michael Kozminsky, together and separately.
Wendy Phillips says the doctor should have told someone about the risks facing her sister.
"I believe, we all believe, something could have been done to prevent this from happening," she said.
"I know as a family we did everything we could in terms of just being there for Lynette.
"With the medical professionals involved, I don't really think they acted according to the rules that they have."
Doctor criticised
In her findings, Judge Coate was critical of Dr Kozminsky, who even made a note about whether there was a risk Pappas would kill someone.
The coroner found the doctor seemed in awe of Pappas's sporting achievements so much so that it may have clouded his judgment about the ordinary boundaries between a doctor and a patient.
Among her recommendations, Judge Coate called for a feasibility study into an on-call service for doctors treating patients with a history of drug use, mental illness and domestic violence.
Dr Chris Atmore, a lawyer and policy officer with the Federation of Community Legal Centres, agrees doctors need to be more attuned to signs of domestic violence.
"What needs to be in place with all healthcare professionals is an understanding of when a woman's life may be in danger and having an appropriate strategy in place to prevent her from being killed," he said.
"At the very least, Dr Kozminsky should not have been seeing both Ben Pappas and Lynette.
"He was operating in a metro area where there are plenty of GPs.
"There needs to be much better integration of mental health and alcohol and drug services into the Victorian Integrated Family Violence Response."
The ABC's PM program contacted Dr Kozminsky. He is yet to read the coroner's report.
He says a telephone service for health professionals who are dealing with family violence cases could help but that mandatory reporting would do more.
Topics: courts-and-trials, domestic-violence, community-and-society, death, melbourne-3000
First posted
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario