Multiple health practitioners banned after record numbers of complaints from patients
A doctor who was banned from practice after sexual relationships with female patients is just one of the people who make up our list of disgraced medical professionals. Others include a violent nurse and a naturopath who tried to cure cancer with baking soda. SEE THE FULL LIST.
North Shore
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Botched surgeries, assaults of patients and claims that cancer can be treated with bicarbonate soda are among the rising number of complaints about health practitioners across NSW.
New figures have revealed record numbers of patients are complaining about treatments they received from the state’s medical professionals including GPs, surgeons, dentists and pharmacists.
The figures, released by the Healthcare Complaints Commission (HCCC), showed the watchdog received 7299 complaints in 2018-19 – a 43 per cent increase from 2014.
Also on the rise were complaints about treatments in the state’s public hospitals – topping 1238, up from 868 in 2014-15.
HCCC Commissioner Sue Dawson said factors contributing to the increase included a rise in experimental health treatments, greater consumer expectations of the health system and the state’s ageing population.
More than a quarter of complaints related to practitioners including GPs and surgeons, followed by nurses, dentists, psychologists and pharmacists.
Ms Dawson said “steady growth in the number of unregistered practitioners was also noteworthy” and would continue to “warrant close monitoring.”
The HCCC finalised 359 investigations in 2018-19 and settled 82 prosecutions against medical practitioners in court over the 12 month period.
NewsLocal takes a look at some of the decisions handed down in the last six months:
HONG CHI XIAO
A western Sydney “slapping therapy” practitioner was sentenced to 10 years in jail for the manslaughter of a six-year-old boy in 2015.
The boy, who had type-1 diabetes, died after attending workshops run by Mr Xiao in Hurstville.
A HCCC investigation found Mr Xiao told the boy’s parents that slapping therapy could “could heal all diseases, including diabetes, and that no medication was required because insulin could be generated” through the treatment.
The child’s family said Mr Xiao instructed them to stop regular blood glucose tests and insulin injections. Mr Xiao also recommended the boy stop eating for three days while only being allowed to drink water or a “ginger date drink”.
The NSW Coroner found the treatment directly caused the boy’s death on April 27, 2015.
In December last year, Xiao was sentenced in the NSW District Court to 10 years in prison and was permanently banned by the HCCC from practicing medicine.
Mr Xiao will be eligible for parole in October 2024.
RUSSELL MCGREGOR
A northern beaches psychiatrist was struck off the medical register for publishing a series of “bizarre beliefs” via a blog on his medical centre’s website.
Russell McGregor, the director of the Northern Beaches Psychiatrist and Psychologist practice in Dee Why, published comments to his “Australian patriot blog” from 2018-19 claiming the global elite engaged in satanic child abuse to maintain control and cohesion, that 9/11 was faked, and that Julian Assange was housed in Switzerland or Washington, rather than the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
The HCCC found the blog discussed a range of “disturbing matters” which had the “potential to place vulnerable psychiatric patients of the practice at risk”.
Mr McGregor was also found to have been “abusive” in his interactions towards members of NSW Medical Council which investigated the contents of his blog. The HCCC heard Mr McGregor in a letter to the council wrote: “the operatives who have been involved in politically destroying me are deranged President Trump haters and those who are political sycophants of what the Deep State represents.”
The HCCC in its decision on February 5 this year stated Mr McGregor’s conduct “amounted to professional misconduct” and that he was “not competent to practice the profession of medicine”.
Mr McGregor will not be eligible to reapply for medical registration for at least 12 months.
ALEKSANDER STRANDE
Aleksander Strande was banned from providing medical treatment after an investigation into the naturopath business he ran from his home in Kogarah.
The HCCC found Mr Strande’s Express Healing clinic claimed to provide a range of herbal treatments for pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression and other health conditions.
The Express Healing website also made several “exaggerated claims” including a “lot of cancers (could be) healed using natural substances” along with testimonials claiming the business had previously cured patients with stomach, vaginal and bladder cancer.
The HCCC heard multiple complaints from patients who claimed they were not provided details of side effects of ingredients in the supplements they were prescribed.
One patient stated they had to be admitted to hospital due to side effects from herbal medications.
Handing down its ruling in September, the HCCC said it had “grave concerns regarding outlandish treatment claims published on Mr Strande’s business website”.
Mr Strande was permanently banned from providing health services.
DANA MAREE GRAY
A Sydney nursing assistant was permanently banned from practising medicine after repeatedly slapping an 85-year-old patient at a North Epping nursing home.
Dana Maree Gray, 60, was sentenced to 17 months’ imprisonment in September 2018 for assaulting the vulnerable resident at The Poplars aged care facility in August 2017.
Video recorded inside the facility captured Mrs Gray slapping and pushing the patient, aggressively removing her clothing and hitting her across the face with a bag of rubbish.
The patient – who had a physical and intellectual impairment – could be heard “screaming and sobbing” in the video.
In November last year, the HCCC imposed a permanent ban on Ms Gray, finding she “posed a risk to the health and safety of members of the public.”
“Ms Gray’s conduct towards the patient was deliberate and involved repeated acts of violence on an extremely vulnerable victim who was entirely defenceless and who was unable to effectively communicate with staff as a result of her medical condition,” the HCCC ruled.
Ms Gray pleaded to assault in Burwood Local Court and sentenced to a non-parole period of six months.
To read the full story click here.
BRIAN CRICKITT
A former GP was formally stripped of his registration as a doctor after he was jailed for murdering his wife with a lethal dose of insulin.
Brian Crickitt was sentenced to 27 years in prison in 2017 after injecting his wife in the buttocks at their Woodbine home in 2009.
The judge in the case said the “primary motive” for the murder was Crickitt’s “increasing dislike for his wife and infatuation and desire to start a new life with (his new lover)”.
The trial heard Crickitt carried out two internet searches relating to insulin overdoses in the days before his wife’s death. The 65-year-old, who worked at Campbelltown Medical Centre, then wrote a prescription for fast-acting insulin under another patient’s name and filled it himself at a nearby pharmacy.
The HCCC in September last year applied to the NSW Civil & Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) for Crickitt’s medical registration to be cancelled on the grounds he was “unfit in the public interest to practice the profession”.
The application stated Crickitt’s wife was not a diabetic and there was no legitimate medical reason for him to inject her with insulin.
Despite Crickitt not being eligible for parole until 2037, the HCCC said Crickitt’s registration needed to be cancelled because his practice of medicine was “significantly below the standard reasonably expected of a practitioner”.
In his submission to NCAT, Crickitt “strongly proclaimed” his innocence but said he understood “that if (the tribunal) pursues this matter at this time it has little option but to order my deregistration.”
NCAT agreed to the cancellation and banned Crickitt from reapplying for registration for at least 20 years or the grounds his conviction was overturned.
To read the full story click here.
LUKE PAPALLO
A former counsellor at a Blacktown disability service was banned from practice for at least five years after an investigation found he had a sexual relationship with a patient.
Luke Papallo was given the prohibition order after a HCCC probe found he had a personal and sexual relationship with a young female client who was being treated for anxiety, panic attacks and depression at Afford disability services.
The HCCC found Mr Papallo’s six month relationship with the client “exacerbated (her) condition to the extent that it increased her symptoms of panic attacks, anxiety and depression”.
“Mr Papallo knew that (the patient) had developed feelings for him and he exploited a very vulnerable patient for his own sexual gratification,” the HCCC ruled in October.
“He displayed little insight or remorse into the impact his conduct.”
Mr Papallo must demonstrate “he no longer poses a risk to the health or safety of the public” before regaining work as a health practitioner.
To read the full story click here.
BARBARA O’NEILL
Barbara O’Neill was investigated by the HCCC for providing potentially dangerous health advice to vulnerable clients.
Ms O’Neill, a self-described author and naturopath, ran a business called Misty Mountain which offered programs including lectures and health retreats for up to 300 people per year.
The HCCC received multiple complaints in 2018 and 2019 relating to “dubious health claims” made by Ms O’Neill including that raw goat’s milk was an appropriate substitute for breast milk and cancer was a fungus that could be treated with bicarbonate soda.
The HCCC heard Ms O’Neill also told a lecture there were “no safe vaccines” and vaccinations had “caused an epidemic of ADHD, autism, epilepsy and cot death”.
The 66-year-old told the HCCC she “doesn’t tell people what to do” and it “was up to the people as how they interpret her.”
The HCCC in its ruling in September said Mr O’Neill failed to provide health services in a “safe and ethical manner” and that “misinformation has huge potential to have a detrimental effect on the health of individuals”.
Ms O’Neill was permanently banned from practising medicine.
To read the full story click here.
JASON NGUYEN
A pharmacist was banned from the profession for three years after an investigation found he forged medical scripts and supplied large quantities of addictive drugs from the boot of his car.
Jason Nguyen supplied up to 68,452 tablets including diazepam and oxazepam to a man dubbed Person B in a series of exchanges at the Star Casino carpark from 2015 to 2016.
Mr Nguyen told the HCCC he started selling the drugs after amounting debts of $600,000 from a “serious gambling addiction”.
Mr Nguyen, the manager at Carlton Day and Night Pharmacy, said he knew the drugs would be distributed to members of the public but claimed he “had only received a minimal financial benefit from the arrangement with Person B”.
Mr Nguyen was also found to have inappropriately prescribed addictive drugs to four patients at his family-owned pharmacy from 2012 to 2016, including forging scripts for patients who had a “history of drug dependence”.
A tribunal ruled Mr Nguyen’s “behaviour was riskful, unethical, wilful and criminal” and that he had “shown little appreciation for the ramifications of his actions towards the public and to the profession”.
Mr Nguyen had his registration cancelled in October last year and was prevented from applying to be re-registered for three years.
ANDREAS KLEIN
Nutritionist Andreas Klein was banned from providing dry needling treatments to clients after a patient who attended his Castlereagh clinic suffered a collapsed lung.
The investigation was launched by the HCCC after the patient experienced trouble breathing hours after receiving dry needling therapy for lower back pain at Mr Klein’s Beautiful Health and Wellness Clinic in March 2018.
The patient was later admitted to hospital where she was diagnosed with right-sided pneumothorax.
The HCCC found Mr Klein’s “grossly inadequate” training and qualifications in dry needling treatments had comprised of a two day training course at the time of the complaint.
The patient told the HCCC she had continued to experience discomfort a year after she received the treatment and also had trouble sleeping on her back.
Mr Klein in October was banned from providing dry needling services, subject to completion of an approved study program recognised by the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia.
LACHLAN SOPER
A doctor on Sydney’s north shore was suspended from practice after engaging in sexual relationships with female patients over the course of more than a decade.
Lachlan Soper, who has also worked out of Dee Why, was handed the ban by the HCCC after an investigation found he had sex with a patient “multiple times” at his practices in St Ives and Muswellbrook between 2009 and 2017, and engaged in another sexual relationship with a patient from 2004 to 2007.
The HCCC found one of the relationships, spanning 2009 to 2017, involved Mr Soper kissing the patient in a consultation room and “rubbing himself” against her “until he ejaculated” and saying words to the effect of: “thank you that was really lovely”. The HCCC found he also had an “inappropriate personal and sexual relationship” with a second patient between 2004 and 2007 and failed to refer the woman to another GP.
The investigation was launched after Mr Soper admitted the affairs to his minister at the St Ives Christ Church Anglican Church, Rev James Macbeth, along with his psychologist who filed a mandatory report to authorities in June 2017.
Mr Soper said he had taken various steps to acknowledge his mistakes, including undertaking education courses in ethics and professional boundaries.
The HCCC in its ruling said it was “satisfied” Mr Soper’s actions amounted to professional misconduct and that he “flouted” ethical rules in order “to meet his sexual needs.”
Mr Soper in November was suspended from medical practice for at least six months and ordered to pay the HCCC’s legal costs.
To read the full story click here.
THOMAS GOYER
A Sydney doctor was banned from practice for prescribing “vulnerable” patients weight loss drugs that had been removed from Australian shelves for safety reasons.
Medical Weight Loss Institute director Thomas Goyer was found guilty of professional misconduct after the HCCC investigated his treatment of 25 patients between 2015 and 2017.
Mr Goyer, who mostly worked from a premises in North Sydney, was found to have prescribed drugs to patients whose medical records showed their conditions could have been adversely affected by the drugs.
Drugs prescribed in “telemedicine” consultations included diethylpropion capsules, sublingual drops of human chorionic gonadotrophin and injectable hCG.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in December stated Mr Goyer’s conduct “in prescribing compounded stimulant medication (to) particularly vulnerable patients without a physical examination was totally inappropriate.”.
Mr Goyer told the HCCC he “understood (his) approach at the institute was poor practice and accepted overall the criticisms made about it”, adding he was “thankful” no patients had suffered harm.
Mr Goyer’s medical registration was cancelled and is banned from reapplying to work as a medical practitioner for 12 months.
To read the full story click here.
MARCUS FERGUSON
A self-employed counsellor was banned from treating women after an investigation found he sex with a patient at his therapy centre on the Central Coast.
Marcus Ferguson, who runs Heart Mind Spirit Therapies in Berkeley Vale, was issued the ban by the HCCC after the watchdog received a string of complaints about his “conduct”.
The investigation found Mr Ferguson engaged in consensual sex with a “vulnerable” client during counselling sessions in May 2017.
In handing down its orders in October, the HCCC said Mr Ferguson “posed a risk to the health and safety of members of the public”.
Mr Ferguson was prohibited from treating women, either in paid employment or voluntarily, and must also obtain written consent before treating any man for shamanic healing or training.
In a statement the commission said it would not outline further details of its finding because it contained “sensitive and personal information” about one or more of his clients.
Mr Ferguson’s website states his centre now specialises in a “unique and effective counselling service for men, by men” and offers treatments for depression and trauma along with life coaching.
To read the full story click here.