Kingsgrove doctor Dannielle Kolos breached medical orders

The respected doctor’s performance as a GP was “below the appropriate standard” when she worked at Botany Medical Centre, a tribunal has found.

A former Botany and Kingsgrove GP has had her medical registration cancelled after she was found to have engaged in unsatisfactory medical conduct and to be not competent to practise due to cognitive impairment.

Dr Damute Maria Kolos, who is also referred to as Dannielle, will no longer be able to practise as a medical professional at age 73 following five allegations brought against her by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC).

The judgment was handed down and published by the Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Monday and followed a two-day hearing in February.

The tribunal heard Kolos, who was first registered as a medical practitioner in 1967, had to undergo a performance interview by the Medical Council of NSW following a patient complaint in 2013.

A review panel imposed conditions on her registration in 2014 which upon reassessment were made stricter in 2016 in order to protect patients.

A female doctor’s medical registration has been cancelled. File picture

She was not allowed to practise more than eight hours per day and no more than five days a week; was prohibited from treating more than five patients in an hour and had to provide copies of the number of her patients to the medical council.

Kolos was only allowed to treat or consult with a maximum of 40 patients per day.

In January 2018, Kolos started working at Botany Medical Centre and in 2019 the HCCC began investigating her.

The tribunal ruled she had treated more patients than allowed on 19 days, after Medicare data was presented in evidence.

The tribunal also found Kolos had given “false and misleading” testimony when she tried to explain why she had seen that many patients in a day, which amounted to “unsatisfactory professional conduct”.

Kolos earned a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Sydney in 1967 and worked as a GP since 1978 in her own practice for many years before working in three group practices.

Following the initial complaint made in 2013, Kolos had to undergo performance review panel assessments, which found she had breached the condition requiring her to see no more than five patients per hour; she had inadequate hand hygiene; poor history taking skills; some deficiencies in clinical knowledge; and inadequate record-keeping for insurance claims.

The panel also found Kolos’ “performance as a general practitioner was below the appropriate standard in a number of areas” and therefore to address those deficits and give more appropriate care to patients her workload was capped.

However the report also noted she was “a very experienced general practitioner who had a following of loyal, longstanding patients” and demonstrated strengths in broad clinical experience, her ability in relation to problem solving and her ability to give practical management advice.

But when the tribunal determined she breached her strict conditions on 19 occasions that warranted her registration to be cancelled.

“It is very important that health practitioners comply strictly with conditions imposed on their registration under the national law,” the judgment said.

The commission further alleged Kolos’ progressive cognitive decline detrimentally affected her practise of medicine to the point she was not competent.

“It is clear from the material before us that concern about Dr Kolos’ cognitive capacity has been a factor in the regulatory processes to which Dr Kolos has been subject since 2013,” the judgment said.

Reports from neuropsychologists from 2013 to 2020 were assessed and the tribunal ultimately ruled Kolos had a mental impairment comprising a decline in working memory, processing speed, visual memory and executive functioning arising from a change in the functioning of the frontal lobe of her brain.

“The impairment presently has a detrimental effect on Dr Kolos’ capacity to practise medicine to the extent that it would not be safe for her to resume practising,” the judgment said.

Kolos did not admit she had an impairment when she gave evidence but had made an effort to improve her condition by studying, doing puzzles and completing Lumosity exercises but she was unable to halt or reverse her decline in the critical areas.

“The protection of patients and potential patients dictates the necessity of cancelling Dr Kolos’ registration as a medical practitioner on account of her impairment,” the tribunal determined.

Kolos is now prohibited from providing health advice and counselling until she is re-registered as a medical practitioner which she can only do from May 2, next year.

She is however allowed to tutor students of anatomy and must pay the costs of the commission’s court proceedings.