Thousands of patients received sub-par colonoscopies from same doctor

Family of patient treated by Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt say her six-month suspension isn't enough In short: More than 1,900 people had to re-take colonoscopies after concerns about a doctor's methods. Of those who took re-tests, hundreds had polyps, some had cancer. A woman, whose mother died years after her test says the suspension handed down to the doctor in question is not enough. A doctor who was found to have committed professional misconduct oversaw thousands of flawed colonoscopies before she was suspended from practising in July. Concerns over Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt's conduct led to 1,934 patients across three health services, who had received a colonoscopy performed or supervised by her between 2018 and 2022, being advised to repeat their procedure. Out of 1,084 patients who had a repeat colonoscopy, 548 of them had polyps, and seven had cancer. Lynette Taylor was one of the patients who placed her faith in Dr Schmidt when she performed her colonoscopy at Albury Wodonga Private Hospital in 2021. With a history of bowel cancer in her family, Lynette had always booked in regular colonoscopies. "She trusted Dr Schmidt. She trusted that she'd highlighted the need for it [the colonoscopy] to be careful, because of the family history of bowel cancer," her daughter Belinda Taylor said. "She put her faith in Dr Schmidt that those colonoscopies were going to be carried out to the standard that they should have." But two years after receiving an all-clear following her screening with Dr Schmidt in 2021, she began losing weight rapidly. "She was very fatigued all the time and had just lost her spark," Ms Taylor said. "As part of a review with a specialist, it was suggested that she go back and have another colonoscopy because they were extremely shocked by the way she was presenting physically." The results left the family in shock. It was stage 4 bowel cancer. "I immediately started questioning and investigating how could this occur," Ms Taylor said. "How can you be so diligent about your health and then find out you have stage 4 cancer?" Lynette died earlier this year, aged 78. According to an independent expert engaged by the family, the size of the cancer detected in 2023 suggested a polyp was likely present when she had her colonoscopy in 2021, but it was not identified. In 2022, another of Dr Schmidt's patients was diagnosed with bowel cancer following a series of regular colonoscopies. One of those procedures lasted for five minutes from start to finish. Dr Cameron Bell has been a gastroenterologist for more than 30 years and has performed around 30,000 scopes throughout his career. He said there was "no way" a high-quality colonoscopy could be conducted in that time. "A colonoscopy generally takes something like 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the difficulty of the procedure,"he said. "It did make me wonder how that situation developed without anybody putting their hand up and saying, 'Well, that's not appropriate. That wasn't a quality colonoscopy'," Dr Bell told 7.30. A complaint after the 2022 case was then made against Dr Schmidt to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission. Dr Schmidt told a tribunal she had conducted colonoscopies the way she was trained to. 'Catastrophic mistake' made during surgery In 2023, Dr Schmidt was asked to step down from practising medicine for 12 months at the request of the Medical Council of NSW. She agreed, and returned to work a year later, but there were restrictions on her practice. Her work as a surgeon has also come under scrutiny. In 2019, 79-year-old William Edmunds was rushed to Albury hospital with a perforated bowel and was operated on by Dr Schmidt. A coronial inquest found that Dr Schmidt made a catastrophic error during the surgery which caused a mechanical bowel obstruction. Dr Schmidt gave evidence at the inquest that distorted anatomy and extensive contamination made the initial operation difficult but couldn't explain how or why the error occurred. In 2023, the coroner concluded Mr Edmunds died from complications of peritonitis, which was contributed to by the surgical error made by Dr Schmidt and recommended the Health Care Complaints Commissioner (HCCC) investigate. In the years since Mr Edmunds' death, the HCCC investigated 13 complaints against Dr Schmidt in relation to colonoscopies and her surgical management of patients over a seven-year period. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found her management of several patients fell significantly below reasonable standards. In July, she was found guilty of professional misconduct and was suspended for six months. But Belinda Taylor says the suspension is not enough and is now pursuing a complaint to the NSW HCCC against Dr Schmidt. "Caring for [Lynette] for the last two years of her life, watching her go through endless treatment, back-to-back appointments, scans, immunotherapy, watching her just deteriorate over those two years ... six months is totally inadequate, and more needs to be done," she said. Professor Cameron Stewart was a member of the medical council of New South Wales, working directly with the HCCC to investigate and prosecute complaints. He acknowledges that for those involved a six-month suspension may not be seen as enough. "These systems I think have worked well in this particular case, but they haven't been as efficient as the families wish ... and I think the public would wish," he said. For Ms Taylor the outcome for her mother remains unfair and painful. "My wonderful mum died, and we held her hand as she took her final breaths. And she had said to us that she wasn't ready. "She was just a beautiful person, and didn't deserve [this] to happen to her." The ABC requested an interview with Dr Schmidt and sent questions, but did not receive a response. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV