Sick to Death

What was meant to be a light‑hearted dinner becomes weaponised into a scandal. The fallout leads to calls for Commissioner Tony Morris to be sidelined.
But pressure doesn’t relent for Queensland Health as another scandal emerges. A bogus psychiatrist was allowed to treat patients. His credentials, the inquiry hears, were “crude forgeries”.
Do you know more? Contact Hedley Thomas and the team at [email protected]
Subscribers hear new episodes of Sick to Death first. Listen at sicktodeathpodcast.com, in The Australian’s app or search for “Sick to Death” on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.
Plus, get exclusive access to photos, videos, timelines, and more at the website
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Journalism's tradecraft and the work that goes on in newsrooms when a massive story is unfolding comes into sharp focus as Hedley catches up in Bundaberg with Toni Hoffman, the senior nurse who risked everything to talk to him about a killer surgeon.
Toni opens up about Dr Jayant Patel's mindset and discloses the serious challenges she's faced.
Do you know more? Contact Hedley Thomas and the team at [email protected]
Subscribers hear new episodes of Sick to Death first. Listen at sicktodeathpodcast.com, in The Australian’s app or search for “Sick to Death” on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.
Plus, get exclusive access to photos, videos, timelines, and more at the website.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Hedley travels to the United States in hopes of a face-to-face interview with Jayant Patel, Geoff Davies delivers his findings to Premier Peter Beattie. The result is a multimillion-dollar cash injection into Queensland Health.
Plus, life goes on for patients treated by the incompetent surgeon and Hedley picks up the story for The Australian.
Two new episodes of Sick to Death will be available in the coming weeks. They include fresh interviews and careful analysis of how the criminal justice system dealt with Dr Patel and how it grappled with the extremely rare occurrence of of the prosecution of a surgeon for alleged criminal negligence.
These events aren't detailed in Hedley Thomas' book Sick to Death.The next two episodes, however, will document some remarkable highs and lows in this saga as it wound its way through the courts.
Subscribers hear new episodes of Sick to Death first. Listen at sicktodeathpodcast.com, in The Australian’s app or search for “Sick to Death” on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.
Plus, get exclusive access to photos, videos, timelines, and more at the website.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queenslanders are outraged when the Commission of Inquiry led by Tony Morris collapses following a successful court challenge by hospital administrators Peter Leck and Dr Darren Keating.
Premier Peter Beattie backflips on his promise to see the inquiry through, but relents in the face of voter fury and appoints the retired judge Geoff Davis as Commissioner.
Do you know more? Contact Hedley Thomas and the team at [email protected]
Subscribers hear new episodes of Sick to Death first. Listen at sicktodeathpodcast.com, in The Australian’s app or search for “Sick to Death” on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.
Plus, get exclusive access to photos, videos, timelines, and more at the website.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1928 when Bundaberg was a small town with good prospects a decade after the end of the Great War, its popular GP Dr Ewing Thomson unleashed a medical disaster, accidentally killing 12 local children. From official records, Hedley and voice actors reconstruct a tragedy from almost a century ago.
Hedley and Claire Harvey share context about an event so different to the calamity caused by Dr Patel in this special bonus episode of Sick to Death.
Do you know more? Contact Hedley Thomas and the team at [email protected]
Subscribers hear new episodes of Sick to Death first. Listen at sicktodeathpodcast.com, in The Australian’s app or search for “Sick to Death” on Apple Podcasts to connect your subscription.
Plus, get exclusive access to photos, videos, timelines, and more at the website.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.