MP wants patient deaths inquest sooner
Posted
A New South Wales Nationals MP is calling for the coronial inquest into the deaths of two men in the state's south to be brought forward.
The inquiry into the deaths of 88-year-old Bob Cooling and 70-year-old Ralf Grenfell at Tocumwal District Hospital is scheduled for March next year.
Tocumwal is in central southern New South Wales, near the Victorian border.
The town's general practitioner, Dr Balaji Rao, was suspended from medicine in February 2007 when police began their investigations.
The member for Murray-Darling, John Williams, has asked the Attorney-General to hold the inquest sooner.
He says he supports Dr Rao's concerns that it has gone on too long.
"The first hearing was scheduled for June, postponed, now it's gone out to March," he said.
"It will be two years since [Dr Rao] had his licence suspended and I don't think it's good enough."
