Wollongong doctor Vincent Dzung Tran banned over ‘unethical’ ED exam

A doctor performed two ‘intimate’ vaginal examinations on a woman experiencing heart palpitations. Here’s why his ‘proven incompetence and insensitivity’ pose a risk to the public.

Dr Vincent Dzung Tran was a doctor at the Wollongong Hospital emergency department. Picture: Simon Bullard

An emergency department doctor who performed two “intimate” vaginal examinations on a woman experiencing heart palpitations has been barred from re-registering to practise.

Dr Vincent Dzung Tran was a doctor at Wollongong Hospital in June, 2020, when the Medical Council of NSW suspended him from practising after a tribunal hearing found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.

Three complaints were lodged to the Health Care Complaints Commission about Dr Tran‘s conduct one night in May, 2020, when he was treating a 22-year-old woman who presented to the Wollongong Hospital ED with “palpitations, shakes, and light-headedness”.

Dr Tran saw the patient, who was with her mother, about 1am on May 23, 2020, with the woman telling the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal he made an initial diagnosis of “acute anxiety”.

The patient denied Dr Tran’s claims they had discussed a provisional diagnosis of “pelvic inflammatory disease” before he went to ”check down there” to ensure there wasn’t ”excessive discharge” from her vagina.

A gloved-up Dr Tran found no discharge and told the patient “everything was fine” before conducting blood tests and leaving her in the waiting room for about 45 minutes.

Dr Tran called the patient back into the examination room, this time without her mother, and put her in a hospital gown before conducting the examination without gloves, draping or modesty sheeting.

The patient was seen to by Dr Vincent Dzung Tran at Wollongong Hospital in May, 2020. Picture: Kelsey Hogan

The patient recounted she had “coarse tremors” at the time of the first examination and was “physically shaking” at the time of the second examination.

The patient’s mother told the tribunal Dr Tran was “a little bit abrupt” when he separated before the second examination and she also found his “constant attention” to his hair “really strange” leading her to wonder if he was “trying to impress” her daughter.

The patient left the hospital about 2am none the wiser as to what was wrong with her, returning to the ED two nights later as her symptoms persisted.

The patient told the tribunal she did not go back to the hospital to make a complaint about Dr Tran, but says she would have been concerned about seeing him again.

The doctor she saw next could not find any clinical notes about the first visit.

The tribunal transcript stated the doctor “apologised to her on behalf of the service” and “encouraged her to send her recollection” of relevant events to a complaints email address.

Dr Vincent Dzung Tran didn’t use gloves during the second vaginal examination.

Dr Tran conceded to the tribunal the second vaginal was not “clinically justified”, with the NSW medical watchdog submitting his decision not to wear gloves during the second examination showed “cavalier, dangerous disregard for hygiene protocols for protection against infection spread”.

The tribunal heard vaginal examinations were “unusual” in an emergency department and therefore should have been recorded.

The medical council found it was “implausible” the doctor “simply forgot” to document his actions, labelling such behaviour as a “very serious clinical error”.

Dr Tran told the tribunal he had an “unwise habit” of moving on to the next patient too quickly and leaving the paperwork for later, conceding he needed to “slow down and ensure” the documentation was accurate.

The tribunal also heard about an email Dr Tran sent to the patient less than two months before the hearing where he said he was “desperate” for her “forgiveness”.

He told the patient he was sorry for his “performance that night” which he said lacked “malice” and was an “honest mistake”.

Dr Tran told the patient if he lost his licence he “wouldn‘t know how to provide” for his wife and children.

However, he told the tribunal the email was an attempt to intimidate the patient and apologised for “crossing the boundary” which his wife had advised him against sending.

In its findings, the tribunal determined the second vaginal examination was “improper and unethical” and Dr Tran was ”not at all sympathetic to the patient’s sense of vulnerability”.

“While the two vaginal examinations were very brief, they were invasive and not clinically justified in the circumstances and the patient had already been found to be ‘anxious’,” the tribunal said.

“The circumstances of the second examination were alarming for the patient, all at a time where expert opinion indicates a brief visual observation would have sufficed and if pelvic inflammatory disease was likely, a much more comprehensive physical examination was urgently required.

“We are cognisant of the fact Dr Tran has been suspended since May 2020 and that these proceedings have become protracted, and no doubt hard on him and his family.

“We are of the opinion that Dr Tran’s proven incompetence and insensitivity pose a risk to the public and we are not satisfied his behaviour with the patient will not be repeated.

“His lack of judgment in making contact with the patient on the eve of this hearing also causes us some concern as we consider his apparent reluctance to pursue relevant training during his suspension and to undertake recommended psychological treatment.”

The tribunal’s final orders included the cancellation of Dr Tran‘s medical practitioner registration and a restriction on his ability to revisit the cancellation for one year from the date of the decision.

Dr Tran is also prohibited from providing health services for one year and was ordered to pay the Health Care Complaints Commission costs for the proceedings.