Bad diagnosis led to navy officer's dismissal

As reported here and also here

The [Australian] Navy sought a psychiatric assessment for Lieutenant-Commander Robyn Fahy from a doctor previously fined for "gross carelessness", it was revealed to a Senate committee yesterday.

Commander Fahy, who is seeking compensation for alleged abuse in the navy, was dismissed on the basis of an assessment by Dr Zdenek Srna, who was fined $10,000 by the West Australian Medical Board for carelessness in assessing a patient in 1998.

Dr Srna incorrectly diagnosed Commander Fahy, the first female graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy, as suffering bipolar disorder in 2000, an assessment dismissed by other doctors. Navy chief Vice-Admiral Russ Shalders said he was not aware of Dr Srna's history when questioned by Labor's defence personnel spokesman, Mark Bishop.

"Dr Srna was a practising, qualified, certified psychiatrist at the time," he told the Senate Estimates Committee.

The head of Defence Legal, Mark Cunliffe, said his department had not made the navy doctor, who went before the WA Medical Board after referring Commander Fahy to Dr Srna, pay any part of $444,000 in his legal costs that Defence covered.

The WA board recommended Dr Douglas McKenzie take on 75 per cent of the costs after finding him guilty of 22 counts of misbehaviour in his handling of Commander Fahy, whom he described as "manipulative" and having a "personality disorder" in a letter to Dr Srna.

Defence head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston admitted it had taken too long to settle Commander Fahy's complaint, first raised officially in 2001. It has since been dismissed at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and is the subject of a federal police investigation.

The case has moved to mediation before a retired Federal Court judge. "It's quite astounding that these allegations haven't been investigated and put to rest one way or the other," Senator Bishop said outside the committee.

Incompetence at more than one level, no?