Former LGH manager's medical licence suspended by AHPRA

Peter Renshaw was the head of medical services at the LGH from 1989 until he retired in 2022.

Recently, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency's has updated Dr Renshaw's registration status to 'suspended', which means he cannot practise medicine in Australia.

Earlier this year, LGH nurse and midwife Amanda Duncan told a parliamentary inquiry that Dr Renshaw allegedly regularly altered patient death records at the hospital.

Ms Duncan recalled several instances where records were falsified to provide a different cause of death in an apparent effort to protect hospital management from liability.

"Former junior doctors reported to me Dr Renshaw would at times attempt to coerce them into incorrectly documenting a cause of death in the emergency department on the deceased's medical certificate of death," Ms Duncan stated.

"When junior doctors refused, Dr Renshaw allegedly informed them that he writes the letters of recommendations for all junior doctors who want to apply for traineeships across the nation."

Her evidence, and that from another nurse at the hospital, at the parliamentary inquiry led the Health Department to order an independent review into the matter.

The review was led by adjunct professor Deb Picone, who said all six deaths were assessed by the same hospital staffer, but did not name the individual.

Department of Health secretary Dale Webster in a statement on Tuesday the six cases had been referred to the coroner for investigation.

"All of these cases were originally assessed by a single staff member, who is no longer employed by the Department of Health," he said in a statement.

He confirmed that the department was now examining further cases that the identified staff member was involved in.