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 BUNDABERG, Australia (AP) - The lawyer of an Indian-trained surgeon dubbed "Dr. Death" said Monday his client — a suspect in the deaths of 87 patients — is being used as a scapegoat for an ailing health system in Australia's Queensland state.
The lawyer, Damian Scattini, was speaking before a government inquiry looking into Dr. Jayant Patel's involvement in the hospital fatalities in this northeastern sugarcane farming town where he worked for two years.
The health service in this northeastern state has been "chronically underfunded for many years, it's got a bureaucratic culture rather than a health-focused culture, and it's got a shoot-the-messenger culture," Scattini told The Associated Press. "This is the creation of a handy scapegoat."
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