Aussie minister quits over Dr Death
Nuttall resigned in a bid to restore confidence in the health system.
An Australian State Minister resigned his position on Friday in a bid to restore confidence in the health system following an inquiry into an India-born rogue surgeon dubbed "Dr Death" by his colleagues.
Gordon Nuttall stepped down as Queensland Health Minister saying he was disappointed that people had lost faith in the hospital system following an inquiry into the Indian-trained surgeon Jayant Patel.
Patel was initially linked to more than 80 deaths at the Bundaberg Base Hospital in southeast Queensland where he was head of surgery.
But an audit by a group of surgeons later found that Patel delivered an unacceptable level of care that was responsible for the deaths of eight people and may have contributed to the deaths of another eight.
A commission of inquiry into Patel's conduct has recommended he be charged with murder.
The inquiry has been told that nurses hid patients from Patel so he could not harm them.
Nuttall, who will take up a new cabinet portfolio next week, said the issue was not about his own political ambitions.
"What is more important is restoring the faith of Queenslanders in the Queensland health system and restoring faith in the department to deliver those services," he told reporters in Sydney.
The President of the Australian Medical Association, Mukesh Haikerwal, told national radio on Wednesday that there had been a growing number of complaints from foreign doctors about racism and some patients were refusing to see specialists with foreign names in the wake of the Patel scandal.