Kudos to colleagues: Connolly spreads the love, but doesn’t suffer fools

Doctors misdiagnosing their own health prematurely curtails more careers than the Medical Council does for other reasons

As his five-year term as Medi­cal Council chair wound down this month, Auckland surgeon Andrew Connolly found plenty of positives to ponder.

Although he admits he doesn’t “suffer fools”, Mr Connolly seems to have found them thin on the ground.

He says council members and staff have been superb; he has also enjoyed working closely with people from clinical, academic, collegiate, bureaucratic and po­litical spheres.

“That personal ability to get on the phone actually helps,” he adds.

He has long had a habit of speaking his mind but says he has learned to be a bit more dip­lomatic.

Still, “I’m not very good at be­ing poker faced...and if someone is talking rubbish, I’ll say, ‘I’m sor­ry, I think that’s wrong.’”

Unanimity or close to it have been the norm around the coun­cil table; he has had to cast his vote to resolve an issue only three times.

He says he’s stoked to receive the honour of Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, es­pecially for wife Jen, daughter Kate and son Fergus, who have given up a huge amount to allow him to manage a large workload.

Mr Connolly also gives kudos to his medical colleagues nation­wide.

“In my time as chair, I’m pretty certain we have only suspended one doctor purely for being utter­ly incompetent,” he says.

Just two doctors were struck off in 2016/17, the latest year reported by the council, out of 15,744 registered doctors.

Mr Connolly says GPs have “the profession’s most difficult job, because it’s so vast”.

In many areas, GPs also cope with isolation, antiquated IT and poor availability of second­ary services, and some may not have had a holiday for two years, he says.

Bearing in mind this context, the fact there are some knowl­edge deficits is not surprising. “But there’s rarely a catastrophic absence of clinical knowledge.”

For many years as a doctor, Mr Connolly thought the coun­cil “took my money and told me off, and that was it”.

Far beyond registration fees and disciplinary matters, the council has over his nine years – the first four as a board member – traversed a lot of new ground in guidance and rules for doctors.

As he departed the chair’s seat at the council’s first meeting of the year yesterday (12 February), there would no doubt have been congratulations on his honour, for services to health.

It celebrates his 21 years as a colorectal surgeon at Middle­more Hospital, where he has been head of department of general and vascular surgery since 2003. He wonders whether some of his “fantastic” colleagues at Counties Manukau DHB nominated him.

The swathe of other contri­butions noted in his citation in­clude: member of the ministerial task group on clinical leadership; chair of the ministerial review of the impact of the elective wait­ing times policy; honorary pro­fessorships at the University of Auckland; and author of 35 ac­ademic papers.

He expects to attend a couple more council meetings – “I’ll try not to be annoying down the back” – and to pass on the head of department baton soon. He’ll spend more time on strategy and planning for Counties Manukau DHB. He is, for example, lead cli­nician on the group planning the SuperClinic/surgery centre rede­velopment.

There is a new role as Health Quality & Safety Commission board member, and he will con­tinue on the partnership group for the new Dunedin Hospital.

It’s unlikely he will turn down appointments should they be of­fered by health minister David Clark or the Ministry of Health.

“I really enjoy the strategic side of the public health system.”

He has never worked in the pri­vate sector: “I passionately be­lieve in the public health system.”

Mr Connolly hopes the coun­cil’s work during his time will leave the health sector better – at cultural competence, for example. “Trying to make that clinically real is an intellectual challenge,” he says, adding he is impressed by many colleges’ ef­forts in this area.

Change can be hard fought. “We had to tighten up signifi­cantly on prescribing [for self and family]...That has led to a fair bit of angst.”

The council reviewed interna­tional and New Zealand evidence. The conclusion? “Doctors trying to manage their own health is high risk for themselves, and try­ing to provide care for their near and dear is very high risk for their near and dear,” he says.

“Doctors misdiagnosing their own health prematurely curtails more careers than the Medical Council does for other reasons.”

Mr Connolly fronted up to criticism when the council intro­duced a new approach to contin­uing professional development – the much-maligned draft pa­per on “strengthening recerti­fication”. GPs were prominent among those who spoke against the inference that older doctors would be targeted.

The council apologised for its wording; Mr Connolly says this was a gracious move after some unhelpful comments from peo­ple who had been “in the room”. The council was not proposing mandatory tests based on age.

“That work is still ongoing, and there will be no mandatory tests based on age.”

Formal continuing education for general registrants has been well received, he says. Similarly, community attachments for in­terns have prompted good feed­back. He hopes it will fulfil its early promise and lead more new doctors into general practice

• He’s obsessed with military history.
  
• He co-wrote, while “mainly in the Air New Zealand Koru lounge”, a two-volume book about Auckland Grammar boys in World War I.
  
• He’s relieved not to have to lead any Medical Council contribution to the debate on legalising euthanasia.
  
• He got mediocre grades in his first three years at medical school.
  
• He can watch hours of test cricket and English football on TV.

• Apology or not, will GPs be reassured on older doctors’ requirements? - 10 May 2017
  
• Insulting to older doctors, say GPs of Medical Council’s education approach - 1 March 2017

Andrew Connolly recently started as chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health for the 2021 year. This profile of him has been republished from New Zealand Doctor/Rata Aotearoa in our free space so it can be shared more widely. Please think about supporting us – subscribe here