Court overturns professional misconduct finding against Sydney cosmetic doctor Albina Della Bruna

Sydney doctor Albina Della Bruna admitted prescribing human growth hormones to her beauty clients – but not for the reasons the drugs were created — so she challenged a misconduct finding against her in court and won.

The decision was handed down in the NSW Court of Appeal, sitting at the Law Courts building in Sydney (pictured) on Friday.

A glamorous Botox doctor, from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, who prescribed human growth hormones “off-label” to beauty patients as an anti-ageing and “wellness” treatment has successfully challenged a professional misconduct finding made against her.

Dr Albina Della Bruna, who runs two private cosmetic practices in Bondi Junction and is part of the Skinmedics clinic at Pyrmont, admitted she prescribed and dispensed the growth hormones to 33 patients between June 2017 to November 2019 to help address their concerns of fatigue and ageing.

The drugs, which include the injectable somatropin, were originally created to treat clinically identified hormone deficiencies in children and adults.

However, doctors say they have recently become popular in the wellness and anti-ageing industry for their so-called benefits in addressing fatigue, boosting memory and hastening wound healing — despite no clinical trials substantiating the claims.

The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) launched legal action against Dr Della Bruna in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) in 2022, accusing her of professional misconduct.

One of the human growth hormones included somatropin, which is injected into the body.

Sydney cosmetic doctor Albina Della Bruna. Picture: Skinmedics website

They claimed her actions in dispensing the hormones for cosmetic purposes — without what they allege was appropriate medical management — fell “significantly below the standard reasonably expected of a medical practitioner”.

The tribunal heard none of the prescribing done by Dr Della Bruna was illegal, nor did the HCCC receive complaints from any of her patients.

A doctor who gave evidence at the hearing said it was apparent from clinical notes that Dr Della Bruna was not prescribing the drugs for hormone deficiency.

“The actual reasons given varied from improvement in cognition, wellbeing, memory, concentration, sleep patterns, energy, wound healing and pain relief,” he said.

“Somatropin has not been proven (in double blind, placebo controlled trials) to be of benefit in any of these situations.”

The tribunal in October last year found the HCCC had proven its case against Dr Della Bruna and made a formal finding of professional misconduct.

It is not the first time NCAT has made adverse findings against Dr Della Bruna.

In 2014, she was reprimanded and had conditions imposed on her medical licence after she was caught prescribing excessive quantities of addictive narcotics to laser hair removal patients at a high-end clinic in Woollahara.

Dr Della Bruna told the tribunal at the time that using the narcotics on her patients amounted to “awful judgment”.

“I agree that I should not have attempted the kind of treatment I was doing in the setting of the clinic if it was so painful that narcotic analgesia was warranted,” she said.

However, the veteran doctor, who was first licensed in 1991 and has since practised in a multitude of cosmetic clinics and hospitals, including Prince of Wales Private, was not happy with NCAT’s most recent findings against her, and subsequently launched an appeal in late 2024.

She told the NSW Court of Appeal through her legal team that the NCAT panel had gotten the decision wrong, especially in claiming she had been financially motivated in prescribing the hormones to her clients.

She claimed her patients were “fully informed” about the use of the hormones, although conceded her clinical notes about potential or possible side effects were lacking in detail, with most only saying “pros and cons discussed”.

In a majority decision handed down in the NSW Court of Appeal on Friday, Chief Justice Andrew Bell and Justice Jeremy Kirk agreed with Dr Della Bruna’s legal team and overturned the NCAT finding.

The case will now be sent back to NCAT to be determined by a different panel of experts.

Justice Christine Adamson disagreed with her fellow judges, finding that the NCAT decision should be upheld.