Tribunal calls pharmacist 'serious risk' after launching dodgy Sydney injection clinic
Shadi Kazeme stole human growth hormone from her work in Victoria before she set up an injection clinic in Sydney that left one person hospitalised. She has just been banned for another year.
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An intern pharmacist who was banned in Victoria for stealing human growth hormone has been labelled a “serious risk” to public health in NSW after she launched an injection clinic in Sydney that left a patient hospitalised.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, on Thursday, decided against permanently banishing Shadi Kazeme from pharmacy, but has added another year to her prohibition.
Kazeme was just a provisional pharmacist when she stole restricted drugs including human growth hormones from her employer, South Yarra’s Como Compounding Pharmacy in Melbourne in 2014 and 2015, NCAT documents state.
But the tribunal heard Kazeme branched out after she became aware of “vitamin infusions” while travelling overseas.
In September 2015, after having her employment at the Victorian pharmacy terminated, she opened her first IV.ME clinic in Melbourne.
She opened a second clinic in Sydney’s Darlinghurst in January 2016.
Kazeme’s IV.ME Hydration Clinic billed itself as a “wellness clinic” that offered intravenous infusions and muscle injections of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, NCAT said.
Some contained glutathione - a prescription only substance - that Kazeme was stocking the clinic with using bogus scripts.
A woman known as Patient J attended the clinic on February 13, 2016, for an intravenous infusion and an intramuscular injection.
But Patient J felt unwell and went home after a nurse, who administered the drugs at the clinic, gave her the injections.
Kazeme later acknowledged to NCAT that Patient J’s drop in blood pressure should have made her seek medical advice - instead she arranged for Patient J’s transport home and stayed in touch with her mother.
Shortly after, the court documents state, Patient J was admitted to hospital with fever, myalgia, abdominal pain and hypotension - the clinic hadn’t yet been open three weeks.
Patient J would be discharged from hospital six days later but investigators from NSW Health had already been dispatched to the clinic and interviewed Kazeme.
Their investigation found none of the patients listed as having glutathione actually had a prescription written in their names from a doctor. Some of the scripts were in the name of the clinic’s staff.
An email revealed Kazeme offered to provide names from her Melbourne clinic to the doctor if he did not have enough employee names to use on his scripts.
NCAT found Kazeme knew the scripts were in incorrect names.
She would later tell the tribunal she didn’t have the experience to provide the right information and didn’t realise it was illegal to dispense medicine in the wrong name.
She also claimed she didn’t direct the nurse who gave the injection to Patient J.
The tribunal found Kazeme devised how the clinic would run, regardless of the actions of others.
Kazeme, the NCAT documents state, admitted her inexperience put the health and safety of patients at risk but the tribunal concluded she “deflected blame” onto the others involved.
NSW authorities said her conduct may be a repeat of her crimes in Melbourne and could continue if she kept running clinics.
The Tribunal found that Kazeme was guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and the case was “sufficiently serious” to warrant suspension or cancellation.
“Ms Kazeme’s unwillingness to take responsibility for her own lack of judgment and care demonstrates a lack of the character and integrity inherent in suitability for registration as a health practitioner,” NCAT said.
NCAT heard Kazeme, in Victoria, was convicted of 83 instances of theft in a criminal court and put on a corrective order in November 2016.
She had posted or released the drugs, including human growth hormone, into the community without control.
She was ordered to pay back $237,185 plus interests and costs.
Two years after her criminal conviction, Victorian authorities deregistered her as a provisional pharmacist and banned her from reapplying until November 2020.
NCAT added a year to the order for “the protection of the public from the apprehended harm that might be caused by Ms Kazeme, and the general deterrence and maintenance of public confidence in the profession”.
Kazeme, 31, told the tribunal she was retraining in construction but wanted to keep her options open with her old profession.