Doctor guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct

A DOCTOR at a Mount Annan medical centre has been fined $30,000 and ordered to undergo “further education” after being found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct.

A doctor at Mount Annan Medical Centre has been found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct.

A DOCTOR at Mount Annan Medical Centre has been fined $30,000 and ordered to undergo “further education” after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct.

Dr Howard Nguyen’s treatment for a patient with a history of mental illness, who died of misadventure in 2010, was considered “significantly below standard”.

A hearing was held last September and the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal laid down its findings on Friday.

A complaint by the Health Care Complaint Commission focused on Dr Nguyen’s treatment of a female patient over an eight-year period. The woman was found dead in her home in May 2010.

The cause of death was found to be misadventure, with the Deputy State Coroner’s report detailing a lethal level of morphine, high level of alcohol and a cocktail of other drugs in her system.

Dr Nguyen, who began practising at Mount Annan Medical Centre in 2002, described in a statement to the Tribunal the patient was “complex”, with a history of chronic pain and mental health issues including bipolar, depression, anxiety and alcohol dependence.

He said he administered the patient with the painkiller pethidine on 43 occasions, as well as prescribing Valium on more than 10 occasions, from 2002 to 2010.

The Tribunal found Dr Nguyen failed to undertake an appropriate medical examination or develop a pain management plan, with his professional conduct described as “significantly below standard”.

Dr Nguyen also failed to maintain medical records of the patient.

The Tribunal has ordered Dr Nguyen to complete six education courses, including several Black Dog Institute modules, within the next 12 months.

He also has been ordered to pay $30,000 to the Health Care Complaints Commission.

The Tribunal decided not to suspend Dr Nguyen from practising, stating it wasn’t a necessary step to “protect the health and safety of the public”.

“His remorse and insight, the steps taken by Dr Nguyen to change his approach and practices, the education and training he has undertaken and is willing to undertake, the high regard in which he is held by other practitioners in the Macarthur area and the unlikelihood of his being a risk to the health and safety of the public in future, the Tribunal believes it is not appropriate to suspend his registration,” the court documents stated.