VCAT finds Mildura GP Dr Kandandalea Shetty not fit to practice

A dodgy Mildura doctor has been found “not fit” to practise after he failed to act properly to save a man dying of cancer, and conducted an anal examination without consent.

Mildura’s Dr Kandandalea Shetty has been stripped of his registration..

A dodgy country doctor has been stripped of his registration after he missed “red flags” that led to a patient dying of cancer and conducted an anal examination on a woman without consent.

Mildura GP Dr Kandandalea Shetty — who has since retired — was also found to have inappropriately prescribed benzodiazepines and inadequately cared for an Indigenous woman with a complex medical history, including serious illnesses and a history of alcoholism and disruptive behaviour.

A VCAT hearing heard that the patient who died of cancer first consulted Dr Shetty about pain in his back and right leg.

During the next nine consultations between January and August 2020, the doctor neither inquired whether his patient had any “red flag” symptoms, nor examined his lower limb sensation, power and tendon reflexes.

Dr Shetty administered six steroid injections over nine months when the accepted interval between injections was no less than three months.

Dr Shetty failed to effectively communicate the significance of the CT scan and blood test results to him, in circumstances where they suggested the presence of cancerous cells.

There were various other lapses on his part and despite the blood test, CT and MRI results, he did not refer the patient to an oncology service for urgent assessment.

That referral was done in November 2020 by Dr Shetty’s colleague Dr John Buckley who the man consulted for lateral hip and thigh pain.

He was subsequently diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic adenocarcinoma — a cancer that originates in granular cells — and died at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital in February 2021.

The tribunal was scathing in its findings over Dr Shetty’s conduct while the cancer patient.

“How can a medical practitioner ignore all standards of appropriate treatment including BB’s constant reporting of his symptoms, inadequate medical examination, red flags (missed) and test results ignored?

“The extremely poor clinical management by Dr Shetty of patient BB was the type of clinical outcome that the performance assessors, and the Board, were hoping to prevent.

While treating a female patient in August 2020 in relation to pain in her anal area and was advised to attend the clinic in person as a physical examination would be required.

When she arrived, Dr Shetty instructed her to lie on her side on an examination table and face the wall, pulled her pants and underwear down, and examined her anus.

He applied lubricants to his fingers and inserted them into her anus, causing her to scream out in pain. She experienced significant pain and rectal bleeding for several days.

Dr Shetty prescribed medication which improved her condition, a result the tribunal said could have been achieved with appropriate conduct.

His conduct caused her a high level of distress, to the extent that she went to police.

The tribunal reported, “It is difficult to see how there can be any other conclusion other than that Dr Shetty is not fit and proper to hold registration. There can be no confidence that if he were to resume practice, he would provide appropriate care and treatment to patients.”

Kandandalea