Whistleblower Tortured by New South Wales Government Medical Office
Emile Zola | 07.12.2006 09:38 | Health | Repression | Workers' Movements | World
Sydney public service dissidents have been fighting human rights abuses perpetrated at the government medical office for years. HealthQuest was allegedly cleaned up. but this year a worker who has made protected disclosures about HealthQuest in the past suffered reprisals when he was forced to attend HealthQuest for a fitness for part time work assessment. I copied this before the Medical Defence Association and government solicitors forced its removal from Sydney Indy.
HealthQuest Tyrants Must Go: "Today 22nd June 2006 I was subjected to torture and humiliation in retaliation for making protected disclosures to the I.C.A.C. years ago about malfeasance, corruption, fraud and Soviet style psychiatry at HealthQuest, which is used by government departments at times to deal with its whistleblowers, boat-rockers and other dissenters.
I was subjected to torture after applying for part time work in
the N.S.W. public service. I have been referred to HealthQuest by the
employer because I want to work part time. I left the full time workplace some years ago of my own accord - not because of inefficiency, inability to get along with others or any other problem. I was accused of being 'mad' years ago after reporting serious maladministration and malfeasance in a government department. HealthQuest duly certified that I was 'insane' following my protected disclosures. The psychologist Hadi Stambouliah involved in the bogus testing process was brought before the psychologists registration board. There were many articles about my case in the media. I got back to work after 12 months but not before losing everything I owned. I was not compensated but did receive my wages for that year that I was illegally suspended from my position. There is no reason I cannot now work part time. But unlike all other semi-retired workers I was not only referred to HealthQuest once for a medical, I was sent back again and again. The first time HealthQuest found me unfit without any proper
investigation. I appealed. I went back a second time. They decided
they didn't have enough 'information'. They tried to force me to see a
psychiatrist. I refused because I am not mentally ill and was not
mentally ill at the time I separated from my employment. So Dr Dodwell of HealthQuest insisted I see a neurologist
- the next best thing to a psychiatrist: he is trying to label me as
'mad'. Why? The only reason can possibly be revenge for my successful
campaign against HealthQuest all those years ago. They never forgive
or forget. The neurologist is well known and respected and he found me fit for work. Still HealthQuest refused to declare me fit. Instead Dr
Dodwell sent to the neurologist paperwork from the corrupt happenings
of several years ago including a referral letter written by a senior public servant. In that letter the public servant stated I was being sent to HealthQuest for medical retirement because I had become 'mentally ill'.
Dr Dodwell presented this paperwork in a way that made it
appear it could all be true. I was found to have been in the right in
that matter and I went back to work successfully for years after these
things happened. Dodwell suggests I might have 'permanent personality changes' from an accident that happened when I was 16. Following that accident I completed the HSC, a degree and worked for many years. What a disgusting slur on my character to suggest I have some kind of personality problem. I get on well with everyone. I do not argue with workmates or cause trouble. I suppose I can understand that troublemakers may not be welcome in the workplace and that in
desperation, in the past, managers have referred these troublesome
people to HealthQuest rather than instruct them directly to stop being
argumentative. But I am not that kind of person. I have many friends.
I have worked in a voluntary capacity in many organizations. There was no suggestion that in the years before leaving work I caused any
trouble in my last workplace. I retired with a party and a gold watch.
I still visit my workplace for special occasions. Peter Dodwell is a good replacement for Dr Helia Gapper, the government medical
officer removed after I and others exposed what she was doing in
issuing false 'certificates of insanity'. Personality disorder seems
to be the favourite for silencing dissidents and whistleblowers. If
Dodwell wasn't corrupt he would have simply accepted the neurologist's first opinion, that I was fit for work. But he insisted I go back yet again. I passed their test but now there was another test. Today the neurologist employed by HealthQuest said I had to go and have an E.E.C. (which checks the electrical activity in the brain). What a sickening thing to do to me.
I had to go to Concord Hospital where the cheerful technician joked
"Too rebellious for the public service, were we?" I heard someone else
remark "State Rail has had a go this week too.....we've had a few of
them through here." You bastards. Why am I
co-operating in this? Because I believe I am entitled to work on a
casual basis just like any other retired person of my profession. And
this time, I am determined to expose HealthQuest and the fact that nothing has changed. Therefore I have to be
seen to be co-operating with their crap. If I refused the E.E.G.
HealthQuest could then write to the department and state that they
could not complete their assessment because I would not co-operate. It would be too much to ask that the so-called 'doctors' working at
HeatlhQuest should be brought to justice and gaoled: the N.S.W.
government has the law tied up so that they can't be; they are only,
after all, offering an 'opinion', even if that opinion is an
outrageous lie aimed at destroying the life of the public servant
involved. And an opinion cannot be seen to be a 'lie' under the law.
So I sat in the 'electric chair' at Concord Hospital this afternoon
feeling completely helpless while a rubber hat was placed on my head.
The technician (I can't complain about her, it's not her fault!) poked
a sharp stick through a lot of small holes in the rubber hat to apply
some kind of conductive substance. It hurt. My head is sensitive where
I had my bad accident in 1968. A rolled up towel was placed behind my
head as it was expected I would soon suffer a fit. A wire was also
placed on my chest. I was told to hyperventilate for three minutes,
which made me really sick. My hands and face went numb. I felt dizzy
and I nearly threw up; then I suffered an asthma attack. I had
forgotten my Ventolin so I just had to put up with it. I was told to
shut my eyes, open my eyes, shut my eyes, over and over again. Then a strobe light was flashed in my face until I felt like screaming.
It was definitely psychiatric torture. And it was ordered by Dr Peter Dodwell. I am not blaming the neurologist whose opinion Dodwell is
attempting to change in favour of the HealthQuest line that I must
never again be employed by the N.S.W. Public Service due to my
continuing campaign against HealthQuest and my exposure of corrupt
officials. However I did tell both the neurologist and the technician that I strongly objected to this E.E.G.
The technician joked and laughed with me throughout; and I thought to myself, how many whistleblowers have had their stand-up comedy act written up as 'evidence' that they are 'insane', should they ever get
themselves into hot water with the public service. I myself was a bit
of a stand-up comedian. I always had my workmates in stitches in the
staffroom. And when the Department and HealthQuest decided to get at me, all my jokes were made to look as if I had been serious, and must surely be stark raving mad. I hope that technician never finds herself in that position.
No matter how I was tortured during the E.E.G. I failed to suffer the
hoped-for epileptic fit. Everyone is capable of suffering a fit. It's
a matter of how low your threshold is. I would say I was taken to the
limit of endurance of anyone's threshold today and yet I did not fall
down and froth at the mouth. What a shame Dodwell, you'll have to try harder, you bastard.
If Dodwell had the power to put me in a psych ward, I am sure he would take pleasure in it. But he has other ways to punish me. Like refusing to certify that I am fit for work, thus causing me to suffer
considerable hardship for the rest of my life. I am already working
part time in private industry but the work isn't frequent enough. I
have a right to work: why can't I? Is there freedom of speech in
N.S.W.? No, there is not; not if you want to work for the government.
After the E.E.G. was over I felt quite shaken. I wandered down to the
hospital cafeteria. I didn't have enough money for lunch and I was
starving. I travelled 240kms today in my car. I had to find the money
for petrol. I am forced to attend these medical examinations at my own
expense. I have not worked for two weeks and am flat broke. I nearly
cried as I ordered a cup of tea which was all I could afford. I looked
out the window at the rain and tried to compose myself so as not to
make a spectacle of myself in front of the other diners. How I woud
have loved a plate of macaroni or a toasted sandwich. I thought of how
hard it is going to be to give my teenaged kids a nice Christmas this
year unless I get a lot more work before then.
I faced a long drive home in heavy traffic. I have lost a day of my
life, a day that was supposed to have been spent with my nieces and
nephews, visiting me from Perth. They only come here twice a year and my brother allowed me to have them for 48 hours. Early in the morning they go to his house. Today I was supposed to have taken them out, maybe to the pictures or the beach or just for a drive. I lost that chance and I am awfully sad. I could not change the date that I was to have them here; I just had to leave them with someone else for the day. And I didn't get home until after dark.
Why am I doing this? Because I am determined not to let them beat me.
I may be sad today, and suffering shock at this horrible abuse and
invasion of my privacy and my brain. I am angry that someone is
suggesting there is 'something' wrong with my brain. 'We don't like
the way you think, therefore you must be mad'. But I will rally and
continue the fight.
I really feel as if I was up against a horrible evil today. I am
exhausted. I feel that I have been assaulted and abused.
What will it take to put a stop to this?"
Since this article was written Peter Dodwell has issued a certificate stating that he believes 'something' is wrong with the whistleblower that he doesn't name. Under FOI it was discovered the 'something' was 'personality disorder'. Dodwell stated the person was possibly fit for work but would have to work under close supervision with constant appraisal of their efficiency. This is someone whose last six years in the workplace were completely without incident or complaint.
Dodwell has complained to the Federal Police about articles on Sydney Indymedia regarding his treatment of the would-be public servant. He has also consulted the Medical Defence Association who, it is believed, may mount a defamation case on his behalf. The articles on Sydney Indymedia were not put there by the whistleblower.
Dodwell's complaints to police and the MDA constitute a serious criminal offence under the Protected Disclosures Act, because most of the material on Sydney Indy refers to the disclosures of several years ago about HealthQuest:
20 (1).
(1) A person who takes detrimental action against another person is guilty of an offence if it is found, on the balance of
probabilities, that the action was substantially in reprisal for a protected disclosure made by the other person.
Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units or imprisonment for
months, or both.
The government department that sent the person to HealthQuest in the first place continues to refuse to employ the whistleblower part time.
Related articles:
Vietnamese Boat Person Certified with Schizophrenia by HealthQuest
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/comment/reply/35310
Government-controlled courts prevent anyone suing for damages:
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/46517
Shocking story of teacher who complained of racial discrimination against Aborigines in Kempsey N.S.W. and had her life destroyed by the Department of Education and HealthQuest - the documents proving the criminal conspiracy are all there:
wbde.org
Former Premier denies knowledge of HealthQuest corruption:
http://www.wbde.org/documents/2005_Nov_08_IndyMedia_CarrDeniesKnowledge_LaurelOBrien.php
If you have an interest in legal cases, you can read the many cases brought against the Department of Disability and Home Care by Gerard Crewdson on this website. Just search for Gerard Crewdson. Gerard complained of assault and mistreatment of disabled people and was sent to HealthQuest to be dealt with:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/
The whistleblowers and HealthQuest victims of New South Wales ask for your support in the form of comments on these articles where comments are able to be added. Sydney Indy is receiving threatening letters from N.S.W. government solicitors every time these articles are put up and are being forced to remove them. We have no freedom of speech and nowhere to go.
I was subjected to torture after applying for part time work in
the N.S.W. public service. I have been referred to HealthQuest by the
employer because I want to work part time. I left the full time workplace some years ago of my own accord - not because of inefficiency, inability to get along with others or any other problem. I was accused of being 'mad' years ago after reporting serious maladministration and malfeasance in a government department. HealthQuest duly certified that I was 'insane' following my protected disclosures. The psychologist Hadi Stambouliah involved in the bogus testing process was brought before the psychologists registration board. There were many articles about my case in the media. I got back to work after 12 months but not before losing everything I owned. I was not compensated but did receive my wages for that year that I was illegally suspended from my position. There is no reason I cannot now work part time. But unlike all other semi-retired workers I was not only referred to HealthQuest once for a medical, I was sent back again and again. The first time HealthQuest found me unfit without any proper
investigation. I appealed. I went back a second time. They decided
they didn't have enough 'information'. They tried to force me to see a
psychiatrist. I refused because I am not mentally ill and was not
mentally ill at the time I separated from my employment. So Dr Dodwell of HealthQuest insisted I see a neurologist
- the next best thing to a psychiatrist: he is trying to label me as
'mad'. Why? The only reason can possibly be revenge for my successful
campaign against HealthQuest all those years ago. They never forgive
or forget. The neurologist is well known and respected and he found me fit for work. Still HealthQuest refused to declare me fit. Instead Dr
Dodwell sent to the neurologist paperwork from the corrupt happenings
of several years ago including a referral letter written by a senior public servant. In that letter the public servant stated I was being sent to HealthQuest for medical retirement because I had become 'mentally ill'.
Dr Dodwell presented this paperwork in a way that made it
appear it could all be true. I was found to have been in the right in
that matter and I went back to work successfully for years after these
things happened. Dodwell suggests I might have 'permanent personality changes' from an accident that happened when I was 16. Following that accident I completed the HSC, a degree and worked for many years. What a disgusting slur on my character to suggest I have some kind of personality problem. I get on well with everyone. I do not argue with workmates or cause trouble. I suppose I can understand that troublemakers may not be welcome in the workplace and that in
desperation, in the past, managers have referred these troublesome
people to HealthQuest rather than instruct them directly to stop being
argumentative. But I am not that kind of person. I have many friends.
I have worked in a voluntary capacity in many organizations. There was no suggestion that in the years before leaving work I caused any
trouble in my last workplace. I retired with a party and a gold watch.
I still visit my workplace for special occasions. Peter Dodwell is a good replacement for Dr Helia Gapper, the government medical
officer removed after I and others exposed what she was doing in
issuing false 'certificates of insanity'. Personality disorder seems
to be the favourite for silencing dissidents and whistleblowers. If
Dodwell wasn't corrupt he would have simply accepted the neurologist's first opinion, that I was fit for work. But he insisted I go back yet again. I passed their test but now there was another test. Today the neurologist employed by HealthQuest said I had to go and have an E.E.C. (which checks the electrical activity in the brain). What a sickening thing to do to me.
I had to go to Concord Hospital where the cheerful technician joked
"Too rebellious for the public service, were we?" I heard someone else
remark "State Rail has had a go this week too.....we've had a few of
them through here." You bastards. Why am I
co-operating in this? Because I believe I am entitled to work on a
casual basis just like any other retired person of my profession. And
this time, I am determined to expose HealthQuest and the fact that nothing has changed. Therefore I have to be
seen to be co-operating with their crap. If I refused the E.E.G.
HealthQuest could then write to the department and state that they
could not complete their assessment because I would not co-operate. It would be too much to ask that the so-called 'doctors' working at
HeatlhQuest should be brought to justice and gaoled: the N.S.W.
government has the law tied up so that they can't be; they are only,
after all, offering an 'opinion', even if that opinion is an
outrageous lie aimed at destroying the life of the public servant
involved. And an opinion cannot be seen to be a 'lie' under the law.
So I sat in the 'electric chair' at Concord Hospital this afternoon
feeling completely helpless while a rubber hat was placed on my head.
The technician (I can't complain about her, it's not her fault!) poked
a sharp stick through a lot of small holes in the rubber hat to apply
some kind of conductive substance. It hurt. My head is sensitive where
I had my bad accident in 1968. A rolled up towel was placed behind my
head as it was expected I would soon suffer a fit. A wire was also
placed on my chest. I was told to hyperventilate for three minutes,
which made me really sick. My hands and face went numb. I felt dizzy
and I nearly threw up; then I suffered an asthma attack. I had
forgotten my Ventolin so I just had to put up with it. I was told to
shut my eyes, open my eyes, shut my eyes, over and over again. Then a strobe light was flashed in my face until I felt like screaming.
It was definitely psychiatric torture. And it was ordered by Dr Peter Dodwell. I am not blaming the neurologist whose opinion Dodwell is
attempting to change in favour of the HealthQuest line that I must
never again be employed by the N.S.W. Public Service due to my
continuing campaign against HealthQuest and my exposure of corrupt
officials. However I did tell both the neurologist and the technician that I strongly objected to this E.E.G.
The technician joked and laughed with me throughout; and I thought to myself, how many whistleblowers have had their stand-up comedy act written up as 'evidence' that they are 'insane', should they ever get
themselves into hot water with the public service. I myself was a bit
of a stand-up comedian. I always had my workmates in stitches in the
staffroom. And when the Department and HealthQuest decided to get at me, all my jokes were made to look as if I had been serious, and must surely be stark raving mad. I hope that technician never finds herself in that position.
No matter how I was tortured during the E.E.G. I failed to suffer the
hoped-for epileptic fit. Everyone is capable of suffering a fit. It's
a matter of how low your threshold is. I would say I was taken to the
limit of endurance of anyone's threshold today and yet I did not fall
down and froth at the mouth. What a shame Dodwell, you'll have to try harder, you bastard.
If Dodwell had the power to put me in a psych ward, I am sure he would take pleasure in it. But he has other ways to punish me. Like refusing to certify that I am fit for work, thus causing me to suffer
considerable hardship for the rest of my life. I am already working
part time in private industry but the work isn't frequent enough. I
have a right to work: why can't I? Is there freedom of speech in
N.S.W.? No, there is not; not if you want to work for the government.
After the E.E.G. was over I felt quite shaken. I wandered down to the
hospital cafeteria. I didn't have enough money for lunch and I was
starving. I travelled 240kms today in my car. I had to find the money
for petrol. I am forced to attend these medical examinations at my own
expense. I have not worked for two weeks and am flat broke. I nearly
cried as I ordered a cup of tea which was all I could afford. I looked
out the window at the rain and tried to compose myself so as not to
make a spectacle of myself in front of the other diners. How I woud
have loved a plate of macaroni or a toasted sandwich. I thought of how
hard it is going to be to give my teenaged kids a nice Christmas this
year unless I get a lot more work before then.
I faced a long drive home in heavy traffic. I have lost a day of my
life, a day that was supposed to have been spent with my nieces and
nephews, visiting me from Perth. They only come here twice a year and my brother allowed me to have them for 48 hours. Early in the morning they go to his house. Today I was supposed to have taken them out, maybe to the pictures or the beach or just for a drive. I lost that chance and I am awfully sad. I could not change the date that I was to have them here; I just had to leave them with someone else for the day. And I didn't get home until after dark.
Why am I doing this? Because I am determined not to let them beat me.
I may be sad today, and suffering shock at this horrible abuse and
invasion of my privacy and my brain. I am angry that someone is
suggesting there is 'something' wrong with my brain. 'We don't like
the way you think, therefore you must be mad'. But I will rally and
continue the fight.
I really feel as if I was up against a horrible evil today. I am
exhausted. I feel that I have been assaulted and abused.
What will it take to put a stop to this?"
Since this article was written Peter Dodwell has issued a certificate stating that he believes 'something' is wrong with the whistleblower that he doesn't name. Under FOI it was discovered the 'something' was 'personality disorder'. Dodwell stated the person was possibly fit for work but would have to work under close supervision with constant appraisal of their efficiency. This is someone whose last six years in the workplace were completely without incident or complaint.
Dodwell has complained to the Federal Police about articles on Sydney Indymedia regarding his treatment of the would-be public servant. He has also consulted the Medical Defence Association who, it is believed, may mount a defamation case on his behalf. The articles on Sydney Indymedia were not put there by the whistleblower.
Dodwell's complaints to police and the MDA constitute a serious criminal offence under the Protected Disclosures Act, because most of the material on Sydney Indy refers to the disclosures of several years ago about HealthQuest:
20 (1).
(1) A person who takes detrimental action against another person is guilty of an offence if it is found, on the balance of
probabilities, that the action was substantially in reprisal for a protected disclosure made by the other person.
Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units or imprisonment for
months, or both.
The government department that sent the person to HealthQuest in the first place continues to refuse to employ the whistleblower part time.
Related articles:
Vietnamese Boat Person Certified with Schizophrenia by HealthQuest
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/comment/reply/35310 Government-controlled courts prevent anyone suing for damages:
http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/46517 Shocking story of teacher who complained of racial discrimination against Aborigines in Kempsey N.S.W. and had her life destroyed by the Department of Education and HealthQuest - the documents proving the criminal conspiracy are all there:
wbde.org
Former Premier denies knowledge of HealthQuest corruption:
http://www.wbde.org/documents/2005_Nov_08_IndyMedia_CarrDeniesKnowledge_LaurelOBrien.php If you have an interest in legal cases, you can read the many cases brought against the Department of Disability and Home Care by Gerard Crewdson on this website. Just search for Gerard Crewdson. Gerard complained of assault and mistreatment of disabled people and was sent to HealthQuest to be dealt with:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/ The whistleblowers and HealthQuest victims of New South Wales ask for your support in the form of comments on these articles where comments are able to be added. Sydney Indy is receiving threatening letters from N.S.W. government solicitors every time these articles are put up and are being forced to remove them. We have no freedom of speech and nowhere to go.
Emile Zola
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