JAYANT Patel has moved into accommodation organised by Queensland Police after being release from jail on Friday night.

Patel initially travelled to his lawyer's home after being released from prison before being taken by police to arranged accommodation.

Patel's lawyer Arun Rangina this morning said his client was in good spirits awaiting news of a retrial.

He confirmed his client was in accommodation organised for him.

He said at this stage he was not aware of any of the former surgeon's family planning to come to Australia.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported that Patel was last night driven from prison but not to freedom, with the state's top prosecutor still to decide whether he will face a retrial.

media_camera Jayant Patel is driven away, after being freed from Wolston Correctional Centre. Picture: Rob Maccoll

Patel's last-ditch tilt in the High Court of Australia paid off yesterday, with the justices upholding his appeal, quashing convictions of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm and ordering a new trial.

Pointing to an 11th hour decision by prosecutors to narrow the focus of attack, the court found the case against Patel was riddled with prejudicial evidence.

The justices said the order for a new trial was "not a step to be taken lightly in any case, let alone one where there has been a very lengthy trial".

In a short statement, Director of Public Prosecutions Tony Moynihan, SC, said he had yet to decide whether Patel would now face a retrial.

"The director (Mr Moynihan) will carefully consider the judgment of the High Court of Australia before making any decision regarding the retrial of Mr Patel," his spokesman said.

media_camera Former Bundaberg surgeon Jayant Patel arrives at court in 2010.

Patel, 62, was found guilty by a Brisbane Supreme Court jury on June 29, 2010, of the manslaughter of Gerry Kemps, 77, James Phillips, 46, and Mervyn Morris, 75, as well as causing grievous bodily harm to Ian Rodney Vowles, now 65.

The convictions related to the time Patel was a surgeon at Bundaberg Base Hospital between March 2003 and April 2005.

But Patel could still return to the US to await a new trial, despite strict bail forcing him to remain in Brisbane and report regularly to police.

It is understood he may seek to vary his bail conditions so he can be with his family, including his wife Kishoree, in America.

Lawyer Chris Nyst expects to meet Patel to discuss his next move. It is understood Patel's wife and daughter have no plans to join him.

Queensland taxpayers will go back to spending several thousand dollars a month on living expenses for Patel after his release from prison on bail.

A Justice Department last night confirmed Patel would get the same financial support from the Government, almost $40,000 a year, in rent and living expenses required under the terms of his criminal justice entry visa.

After being extradited from the US in July 2008, Patel was granted a housing stipend of $535 a week for a two-bedroom furnished apartment as part of a $1527-a-fortnight package for his pre-trial stay.

One senior source said the expense on the public purse to run a second trial, once the cost of the trial and funding of Patel's likely publicly funded legal aid defence were taken into account, would be too great for the sake of a possible extra one to two years in jail.

Patel's solicitor, Arun Raniga, last night told The Courier-Mail his client was "extremely emotional" after seeing the High Court decision on television news shortly after noon.

"He was emotional when I talked to him," Mr Raniga said. "He was watching the news and saw it on the television while I was still reading (the High Court) judgment."

But, Mr Raniga said he had yet to decide whether the Crown would proceed to trial again or withdraw the charges.

"We are confident (we will win next time)," he said.

The High Court judgment pointed the finger at the prosecution, and also raised concerns about whether the evidence proved "to the requisite standard" Patel was guilty.

"The need to consider such a course is brought about by the way in which the prosecution conducted its case," the judgment said.

"The sheer extent of the prejudicial evidence in the context of a wide-ranging prosecution case is likely to have overwhelmed the jury."

Bundaberg Hospital Patients Support Group president Beryl Crosby said the outcome was devastating.

- additional reporting, Tuck Thompson, Anna Caldwell and Brooke Baskin

Originally published as Free Patel settles into taxpayer digs