Four Top Durban surgeons were scapegoats forced to take the fall for Netcare and surgeons in Joburg and Cape Town who also allegedly performed more than 200 “illegal” kidney transplant operations in an international organ scandal that rocked Netcare’s St Augustine’s Hospital.
According to a prominent Durban vascular surgeon, Prof John Robbs, the 109 operations performed in Durban were just the “overflow” of procedures performed on Israeli patients who illegally bought “donor” kidneys from Israelis and Brazilians and travelled to the three South African cities for the “transplant tourism” operations at Netcare hospitals, as well as the public Groote Schuur and Charlotte Maxeke hospitals.
Netcare spokeswoman Martina Nicholson yesterday confirmed that cross-border operations had been performed at its Garden City Hospital in Joburg and its Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town, while Gauteng Department of Health spokesman Simon Zwane called for a police investigation into the allegations.
Robbs now wants to know why he and three other Durban surgeons, Prof Ariff Haffejee, Dr Neil Christopher and Dr Mahadev Naidoo, had been targeted in the case, while charges against other medical specialists, such as radiologists, anaesthetists and cardiologists, as well as surgeons in Joburg and Cape Town, who were also allegedly involved in the transplant processes, were not pursued.
Christopher said he “totally agreed” with Robbs’s view that the Durban doctors were being forced to take the fall for all medical specialists around the country. And Naidoo and Haffejee said they also “share pretty much the same sentiments” as Robbs. The surgeons allege that about 140 operations were done in Joburg and more than 80 in Cape Town.
The surgeons appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court this week and are facing charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and contraventions of the Human Tissues Act for performing illegal kidney transplant operations at Netcare’s St Augustine’s Hospital. Several plea bargain offers by State prosecutor Robin Palmer have failed. They are due to stand trial on May 27.
“I am not going to plead guilty of something I am not guilty of,” Robbs said. We are carrying the can for just about every transplant surgeon in sub-Saharan Africa. Most transplant surgeons in South Africa were involved with this and we are carrying the can.
“But in Cape Town and Johannesburg there has been no (legal) action,” said Robbs, who is a former head of surgery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson Mandela Medical School, in an exclusive interview with Independent Newspapers.
“This whole thing started in Johannesburg at Johannesburg General Hospital and Garden City Clinic but they couldn’t cope with the volume.
“There was a big waiting list and an overflow. They decided ‘let’s go to Durban’. They built the Caritas wing at St Augustine’s, especially for the transplants because it was going so well,” Robbs said.
“Why do you think they paid a R7-million fine? Netcare made millions. There has been a trade-off to go for Durban, but leave Netcare in Johannesburg and Cape Town alone,” Robbs alleged.
However, Nicholson denied that Netcare’s plea bargain had contained such a clause.
“In 2004, the Netcare board appointed an independent senior counsel and attorneys to conduct a full investigation into the cross-border kidney operations, which had been performed at the St Augustine’s Hospital, the Garden City Hospital and at the Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital.
“Shortly after the commencement of the investigation, Captain (Louis) Helberg, the lead investigating officer together with advocates employed by the Serious Economic Crimes Division of the SAP, informed Netcare that Netcare’s investigation was interfering with the police investigation and that Netcare should stop its investigation until such time as the police investigation was completed.
“Netcare acceded to this request in the spirit of co-operation with the authorities. It is for this reason that Netcare has still not been able to investigate the cross-border kidney operations which were performed at Netcare hospitals and to implement its own remedial sanctions and solutions.”
As a result, Netcare was “unable to confirm or deny that the operations were illegal”, because the police were still in possession of its documents, Nicholson said.
Robbs alleged that a Netcare staff member in Joburg had blown the whistle on the syndicate.
He alleged that illegal kidney operations started in Joburg after international patients “did not like the hotel facilities” at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital where the first few operations were performed.
He said a doctor at Groote Schuur wrote to Haffejee in about 2001 raising concern and highlighting his “suspicion” that “this thing was not above board”, although he said he had no proof.
“They then moved it to the Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital in Cape Town,” Robbs said.
Netcare KwaZulu-Natal pleaded guilty and paid a R4-m fine and agreed to a R3.8-m confiscation order in November 2010 after initially protesting their innocence. Hebrew interpreter Samuel Ziegler paid a R50 000 fine and was given a suspended sentence of five years.
Other accused who were arrested included: Netcare transplant unit staffers Lindy Dickson and Melanie Azor and University of KZN’s Prof Kapil Satyapal against whom the charges were earlier withdrawn, a move Robbs has questioned.
“The four of us left in this thing would like to know where is Satyapal?” Robbs said.
Robbs said the four surgeons had over the years repeatedly questioned Netcare about the legality of the kidney transplants and the hospital group’s senior management, including former chairman Michael “Motty” Sacks, had “constantly assured” them that the operations were “above board”.
He said Netcare staff had travelled to Israel to meet organ broker Illan Perry who had approached Netcare to facilitate the operations.
He said that a nephrologist, Dr Jeff Kallmeyer, who pleaded guilty and paid a fine of R150 000 in December 2010, had screened the patients and told surgeons that donors and recipients were related and no money had changed hands.