Patel was competent to perform operations: lawyer

Indian-origin doctor Jayant Patel, facing manslaughter charges in Australia, was competent enough to perform complicated oesophagectomy operations, his lawyer told a top court in Brisbane on Monday.

Patel's lawyer Michael Byrne told a Supreme Court jury in Brisbane, that contrary to the prosecution claims the evidence given at the trial showed that the doctor was capable of doing a competent oesophagectomy (removal of a cancerous oesophagus).

Byrne in his final argument in a trial where Patel, 60 dubbed by media as 'Dr Death' has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Gerry Kemps, 77, James Phillips, 46, and Mervyn Morris, 75, and causing grievous bodily harm to Ian Rodney Vowles, 62, on various dates between March 2003 and April 2005.

The manslaughter trial entered its 14th week and his lawyer Byrne finished his final address to the jury by asking them to "calmly and carefully" examine the evidence and to find his client not guilty.

Byrne told the jury to ignore the "adverse media coverage" that has been directed at Patel over the past five years.

He said that "not one jot" of that coverage had the "slightest relevance" to the jury's decision-making process.

Instead, they needed to focus only on the evidence delivered during the 14 weeks of the trial.

"You are not in this jury to justify any media expectations," he said.

Byrne argued that in each of the four cases, Dr Patel always acted with the best interests of the patients in the forefront of his mind.

He acted not in hindsight, but relying on what was available to him "in the real world," Byrne said.

He said that after the jury members had "calmly and carefully" examined the evidence, they would not be satisfied that Patel was "criminally negligent" and that his behaviour did not amount to the "grave moral guilt" that deserved punishment by the state.

Justice John Byrne is expected to begin summing up the case for the jury on Tuesday.

When he is finished, the jury will be sent away to decide on verdicts for the four charges.

The 60-year old Patel has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of three patients - Gerry Kemps, Mervyn Morris and James Phillips - and not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Ian Vowles.