Recruitment processes at Southland Hospital are under review after a locum radiologist was stood down because of his error rate three weeks after he began work on December 1.

The hospital was under contract to continue paying the locum until March 1, the chief medical officer for Southland said yesterday.

The American radiologist was recruited by the Southern District Health Board through Whanganui recruitment centre Medlink but was interviewed by chief medical officer David Tulloch on December 19 after complaints were made about the quality of the radiologist's reports. Mr Tulloch said the locum was experienced and had excellent references.

But an audit found 37 of the 218 CT, MRI and ultrasound scan reports made by the locum had errors. Mr Tulloch said the doctor was stood down on full pay which Mr Tulloch could not disclose.

A district health board spokesman said the average salary for a locum radiologist at Southland Hospital was $275,000-$325,000 per annum.

The locum has returned to the United States pending the outcome of a review of processes, Mr Tulloch said, while Medlink and medical councils both here and in the US had been informed of the audit and the review.

Patients had not been adversely affected, Mr Tulloch said.

While the hospital was confident no-one had been harmed because of the errors, they were not acceptable and the hospital would be looking at its processes closely, he said.

An 0800 number had been set up for anyone concerned about their reports at Southland Hospital from December 1 to19.

Medlink executive director Kathleen Haskell said this was the first time an incident like this had happened for the recruitment company and it put Medlink in an uncomfortable position.

"We have absolutely no idea what happened. He came with good references, which were backed up verbally both in the US and in New Zealand, and had worked under supervision as all new doctors to New Zealand do."

Efforts had been made to find the radiologist since his return to the US, to look into the incident, with no success so far, she said.

The radiologist was a senior doctor, she said. "All we can do is speculate at this time."

The Southern District Health Board had reacted "perfectly" to the situation, she said.

"They did what needed to be done and acted quickly to look after their patients."