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A letter emailed to Mr Kieran Pehm, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner on 5 Oct 2015
 
Mr Kieran Pehm
NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner
 
Dear Sir
 
As you would be aware, the New South Wales medical services scene is on the verge of total lawlessness. To the extent that it is regulated, it’s regulated extremely poorly. And far worse than that, it’s regulation without enforcement.
 
A good example of this would be the Dr Jassim Daood story.
 
As you would know, in September 2012, the NSW State Coroner, after an enquiry into the deaths of three patients in a Sydney addiction clinic where Dr Daood was working as a GP, made a recommendation to your Commission that “it consider proceedings against staff member Dr Jassim Daood.”
 
This led to your Commission issuing a Press Release, albeit more than 2 years and 4 months later on 20 Feb 2015 advising that Dr Daood had been found guilty of professional misconduct and certain conditions imposed on him - not that he took any notice of these conditions, just “thumbing his nose” at you and your Commision.
 
But by the 20 Feb 2015 Dr Daood had a big website claiming that for nearly 27 years i.e. since 1988, he had had a glorous career in cosmetic surgery, “in Austalia, the USA and Europe” specializing in just about everything blah blah blah, blah blah blah.
 
There are about 100 aspects of his claims that are just ludicrous, but just to name four.
 
He claims to have had his “glorious career” in “Australia, the USA and Europe.” But when the NSW Professional Standards Committee, looked into his background and produced these paragrapahs on him they couldn't apparently find any evidence that he’d ever even been to the USA or to Europe.
 
And they found that in the years 1988 to 1994, i.e. the first 6 years of his “glorious career,” Dr Daood had been in Iraq, working mainly in the Army - one can’t imagine there would have been much cosmetic surgery going on in the Iraq Army.
 
And they found that since 2003, Dr Daood “had worked as a general practitioner.”
 
And, a fourth one was that one of the more substantial qualifications that he claimed was to to be a Fellow of a very impressive sounding professional organisation, the problem being that there was, and still is, no evidence that this organisation exists - about which, more later.
 
There are numerous examples of how Dr Daood has “thumbed his nose” at you, Mr Pehm, and your Commission, but two stand out.
 
Firstly, one of the conditions imposed on Dr Daood was that he was, “To obtain Medical Council of NSW approval prior to changing the nature or place of his practice” - something that’s not mentioned in your press release but which is set out on Dr Daood’s entry on AHPRA's Registers of Practioners.
 
One would have thought that to move from being a doctor who “had worked as a general practitioner in Sydney since 2003,” as the Professional Standards Complaints Committee believed he had, to being “one of Australia’s most experienced and trusted cosmetic surgeons,” as Dr Daood described/describes himself on his website, qualified as a change of “the nature” of a practice. But when a letter was emailed to the Medical Council of NSW asking if it had granted approval to Dr Daood’s change, the reply came back from one of their receptionists, “I wish to advise you that the information you require is confidential,” with perhaps a hint of, “Please don’t bother us with this stuff!”
 
It would appear clear that, either, Dr Daood hadn’t requested approval, or, had requested it and it had been denied, but he’d taken no notice of the condition anyway! (This is always supposing that those at the Council hadn’t been stupid enough to grant it, although, if they had, it probably wouldn’t surprise anyone.)
 
It must bemuse those on the Professional Standards Committees that they impose various conditions which aren't taken any notice of by any one. It always reminds one of what President Truman is reputed to have said when General Eisenhower was elected as his successor as President of the United States - “Poor Ike, in the army he’d be used to giving orders and someone carrying them out. Here in the White House you give an order and no one does a damn thing!”
 
Secondly, as you may recall I wrote to you on 14 Mar 2015, complaining in particular about the fact that Dr Daood was making false and misleading claims, particularly the one that he was a Fellow of a very impressive sounding professional organisation, the problem being that there was and still is no evidence that this organisation exists - about which, more later.
 
This eventually led to me getting a letter from your Travis Brown, Manager of Assessments,on 5 Jun 2015, indicating that my complaint had been dismissed on the basis that, and I quote, ”the Commission and the Council, (the Medical Council of NSW,) are satisfied that Dr Daood’s claims in relation to his qualifications and memberships are warranted and appropriate.” This was on the basis of “relevant supporting documentation” that Dr Daood had “provided.” It would be interesting to know how Dr Daood had tricked your Commission and the Medical Council into being satisfied that his claims to be a Fellow of a non-existent organisation were ”warranted and appropriate.” He must had had SUCH good laugh about that.
 
Or perhaps Mr Brown was lying, making up the story about the “relevant supporting documentation” so the Commission could sit on it’s hands and do nothing, AGAIN!
 
But to be fair, either because I’d sent your Commision some more emails or for other reasons, a review was held, which led to me getting a letter from your Ms Karen Mobbs on 21 Sep 2015 indicating three things - (1) that, “during the review, attempts to independently verify SOME of Dr Daood’s claims were unsuccessful,” (2) Dr Daood had been informed,(i.e. on or before 21 Sep 2015,) and (3) that the Commission’s file on the matter had been closed.
 
So will this change anything, will Dr Daood stop making his false and misleading claims? Not at all! Not at all! He is making exactly the same claims as he was when I wrote to you on 14 Mar 2015 - nearly 7 months ago
 
You could easily check his website from time to time, if you were interested - not that any one thinks that you or anyone in your Commission would be. As Ms Mobbs has indicated, the Commission's file has been closed.
 
This can all be summed up in this - that individual NSW health care services consumers, to protect themsleves, have to verify NSW doctors’ claims as to their memberships and qualifications THEMSELVES, BECAUSE YOU OBVIOUSLY DON’T CARE. Even when an individual NSW health care services consumer locates an instance of a doctor making false and misleading claims, and takes the time and trouble to draw your attention to it, in the idealist belief that you might do something about it to stop any of their fellow health care services consumers from being mislead and deceived, YOU STILL DO NOTHING! Or what you do is so ineffective that the doctor still carries on with his or her false and misleading rubbish, as though you and your grandly called NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, headed up by your good self, don’t even exist, AND YOU DON’T CARE!
 
Dr Jassim Daood is laughing at you and your Commission, Mr Pehm.
 
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Created: 6 Oct 2015
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