The Herald has also learnt that a New Zealand barrister, John Rowan, QC, is preparing legal action against Dr Hasil on behalf of up to 30 women for botched operations at Wanganui District Hospital. Dr Hasil, who is staying at Edward Eager Lodge, told the Herald he was unaware of any patient complaints against him from Lismore and denied assaulting anyone.

"Of course it's not [true]. I became depressed. I can't work. I'm on medication and this must stop," he said.

A spokesman for North Coast Area Health Service said that after publicity on the NZ inquiry, 10 patients had "raised concerns regarding care provided by Dr Hasil at Lismore Base Hospital", which had been referred to the complaints commission and the medical board.

However, Lismore hospital failed for five years to address the complaint of one woman, Connie Scholl. Her complaint, in September 2003, detailed shocking allegations of abuse at the hands of Dr Hasil while he stitched her after giving birth in 2002 at Lismore hospital, leaving her with "weeks of pain and a year of nightmares".

In a statement to the complaints commission in May, Ms Scholl said Dr Hasil called her a "horse woman" after she kicked him in the face because he was stitching her vaginal and anal area without anaesthetic.

"As Dr Hasil was getting up off the ground I heard him say to the midwives, 'stirrup the bitch'… it was also at this time that Dr Hasil said to me, 'you Australian women don't know how to have babies'," the statement said.

It alleged he forcefully put his hand on her vagina and said, "Who is the boss now?"

Ms Scholl told the Herald this week she felt "tortured and traumatised" and took years to recover physically and emotionally.

She made a formal statement to police in March.

In June the chief executive of the North Coast Area Health Service, Chris Crawford, sent a written apology to Ms Scholl that her 2003 complaint "was not properly investigated".

Another former patient, Tracey Robson, is considering suing Lismore Base Hospital after her daughter Chloe was born with cerebral palsy in August 2002, despite a normal pregnancy and heartbeat just hours before the birth.

In a letter to the hospital last March Ms Robson described the caesarean delivery as "very rough". "A lot more pressure was used to deliver Chloe compared to the birth of my twins [also by caesarean]. I believe Dr Roman Hasil is responsible for Chloe having cerebral palsy," she wrote.

Within 15 hours, Chloe was having seizures and was transferred to intensive care at Mater Mothers Hospital in Brisbane. Ms Robson said she decided to complain after reading a letter in The Northern Star in Lismore from another woman, Jodie Phillips, who said Dr Hasil had left her "traumatised and scarred for life".