VCAT: Victorian doctors and health professionals who breached standards
First do no harm: It’s the creed doctors pledge to live by but 35 have fallen foul of regulators in the past year, copping sanctions. Here are some.
Victoria
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Thirty-five Victorian medical practitioners have had their registrations cancelled or suspended over the past year, with one prescribing a fat-busting drug to a patient who was not obese, another prescribing addictive drugs to sex workers and Viagra to himself, and yet others accused of sexually assaulting patients during consults.
Some sanctions are pending the investigation of allegations.
Doctors who have fallen foul of medical watchdogs and in some cases the law in recent years include GPs, psychiatrists, oncology specialists, football club medicos and surgeons.
It comes as a Victorian osteopathwas recently banned from practising for six years by the Medical Board at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), after being found guilty in the Magistrates’ and County Courts of possessing child pornography and committing an indecent act with a child under 16.
The osteopath - who cannot be named - wanted to be able to work as a masseuse following his release from jail but has also been banned from working as a massage or sports therapist and in “any form of therapy involving physical contact with the body (and) any other alternative or healing or healthcare therapies”.
A spokesman for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) said a total of 35 medical practitioners had their registration suspended or cancelled in Victoria between June 1, 2020 and August 18, 2021.
In some cases, the practitioners’ identities and details of the allegations were suppressed, he said.
But national boards, including the Medical Board of Australia, had the power to take immediate action to suspend practitioners and restrict their practice if they thought their conduct, performance or personal health could pose a risk to public health or safety.
Boards could also take immediate action to suspend practitioners if they had been charged with serious criminal offences, and they believed the step was necessary to maintain public confidence in the medical and health professions.
RECENT SANCTIONS INCLUDE
Melbourne locum doctor Ahmed Kamil Mohamed Cassim
Sanction: Immediate suspension from March 29, 2021, pending the outcome of his criminal charges.
For: Serious allegations of sexual assault on three young female patients.
History: Dr Cassim denies the conduct with which he has been charged and recently appealed the Medical Board’s decision to suspend his licence at VCAT, but on June 8 the tribunal upheld the board’s decision.
He is charged with four counts of sexual assault relating to the consultations, which occurred at two suburban clinics between June and September last year and is set to face court in November this year. He has flagged his intention to fight the charges.
VCAT heard the locum doctor allegedly groped a 21-year-old woman’s breast when she went to see him for a repeat script of her contraceptive pill in June last year. He also allegedly touched her calves and stomach and joked about the age she became sexually active, which made her uncomfortable.
The doctor is also accused of groping the buttocks of a 20-year-old woman during a medical examination last July. The tribunal was told the doctor allegedly asked her to drop her leggings and grabbed her bottom and inner thighs before commenting that she was a “pretty young lady”.
A third patient, aged 18, alleges she went to see Dr Cassim to obtain a medical certificate for a knee injury, but he asked her to pull down her pants and rubbed her groin, vagina area and buttocks.
GP Philip Soffer
Sanction: Suspended from practice for three months from April 23, 2021, to July 22, 2021, for inappropriate prescribing, poor record keeping and providing false and misleading information.
For: Professional misconduct.
History: It’s alleged that on nine separate occasions between 2017 and 2018, Dr Soffer inappropriately and unsafely prescribed Duromine (phentermine), a short-term treatment for obesity, to his patient without clinical indication. The patient was not obese and had a contraindication of anxiety. Dr Soffer also failed to keep adequate records of the consultations.
During the board’s investigation into the matter, Dr Soffer also falsely and misleadingly provided to AHPRA clinical notes that he purported were made at the time of the consultations when they were not.
On April 19, 2021, the tribunal found Dr Soffer had engaged in professional misconduct on all accounts. It reprimanded Dr Soffer, suspended his registration for three months and imposed mentoring and auditing conditions on his registration on resumption of his practice.
Psychiatrist Prabakhar Thomas
Sanction: Disqualified from applying for re-registration for five years from March 2021.
For: Misconduct. Sexually assaulting a female patient.
History: The Medical Board took immediate action after receiving a notification alleging Dr Prabakar Rajan Thomas had sexually assaulted a female patient during a consultation. The board put conditions on Dr Thomas’s registration insisting he have a chaperone present when treating female patients.
Following advice from Victoria Police that Dr Thomas had been charged with several offences, the board took further immediate action in June 2017 and suspended Dr Thomas’ registration. He surrendered his registration in November 2018.
On March 29, 2019, Dr Thomas was, after pleading guilty, convicted of one charge of sexual assault and sentenced to two years’ jail.
The board referred him to VCAT for professional misconduct and alleged there was ‘grooming’ leading up to the assault which included touching the patient’s body inappropriately and disclosing to her that he had an affair with a patient.
The tribunal found while Dr Thomas admitted to the conduct that was the subject of the sexual assault charge, he neither admitted or denied the grooming matters and claimed he could not recall the events for health reasons.
Former Western Bulldogs medico and GP Richard Vucinic
Sanction: Disqualified from applying for registration for three years from December 2020.
For: Excessive prescribing of drugs of dependence and providing false or misleading evidence.
History: On December 19, 2018, the Medical Board referred former Western Bulldogs medico and GP Dr Richard Vucinic to VCAT for professional misconduct after he was convicted in the County Court in May 2018 of two counts of prescribing a drug of dependence in excessive quantities and without clinical justification to three patients.
The criminal charges related to the prescribing to two patients, between December 2013 and March 2014. An investigation by AHPRA also identified a third patient.
As a result of the criminal charges and subsequent investigation, AHPRA placed conditions on Dr Vucinic’s registration banning him from prescribing any drugs of dependence, including all Schedule 8 drugs, benzodiazepines and anabolic steroids. He was also required to provide a statutory declaration to the board each month.
But on 13 occasions in March 2015 Dr Vucinic prescribed benzodiazepines to his patients, and in April 2015 provided a statutory declaration to AHPRA in which he falsely stated he had complied with the conditions on his registration.
On October 22, 2015, the board suspended Dr Vucinic’s registration after receiving yet another notification.
On December 4, 2020, VCAT determined Dr Vucinic should be reprimanded, his registration cancelled, and he be disqualified for reapplying for registration for three years.
In pleading, unsuccessfully, for the return of his medical licence, Dr Vucinic told the tribunal he believed he had “already suffered more than enough” for his crimes – committed the year after he was sacked by the club – and wanted to be able to practice medicine again.
He described the saga as a “horrible nightmare” which humiliated himself, brought shame on his family and added he had been struck down by Covid and was broke.
“This has been a massive fall of grace, a horrible nightmare I would not wish upon anyone,” he told VCAT.
Radiation oncologist Syed Islam
Sanction: Reprimanded and disqualified from applying for registration for 14 months from August 2020.
For: Inappropriately prescribing medications, including addictive drugs to sex workers without keeping proper records and prescribing Viagra to himself.
History: The Medical Board launched an investigation into Dr Syed Islam’s conduct after Victoria Police informed AHPRA about allegations relating to his prescribing. The Board took immediate action by suspending his registration on May 22, 2018, while it investigated.
In April 2018, it referred the matter to VCAT, alleging Dr Islam had inappropriately prescribed medications (diazepam, oxycodone, alprazolam and MS Contin) to commercial sex workers on eight occasions without conducting a proper assessment or examination or taking clinical records.
It also alleged he had engaged in dishonesty and theft (including pleading guilty to criminal charges of theft and making a false document), stolen and forged a doctor’s name on a prescription pad and falsely denied he had done so to the board. Additionally, it alleged he had inappropriately prescribed medications to himself and a family member (without her knowledge) on 16 occasions.
The tribunal found Dr Islam had engaged in professional misconduct, reprimanded him, cancelled his registration and disqualified him from applying for re-registration for 14 months.
OTHER CASES
GP Juviraj Arulanandarajah
Sanction: Reprimanded and suspended for three months, from February 22 to May 21, 2021.
For: Professional misconduct, after forcing himself on a woman after a night out — as she slept near her children. The ban was handed down more than five years after the horrifying sex assault, in which he is alleged to have laid on top of the woman while he was drunk, and kissed, bit and groped her, by putting his hand down her pants.
History: The attack happened at Dr Arulanandarajah’s family home in mid-2015, after dinner and drinks, during which he consumed a lot of alcohol, VCAT heard.
The woman “woke at 4am to find Dr Arulanandarajah on top of her”, the tribunal panel was told.
“He sexually assaulted her then, and subsequently grabbed her arm in the bathroom, and also pulled her down on to a bed with him. These events occurred over the space of about 20 minutes. They gave rise to three charges of sexual assault,” it noted.
Dr Arulanandarajah pleaded guilty to a single, rolled-up charge of sexual assault in December 2016, a Magistrate imposed a conviction and sentenced him to an 18-month Community Correction Order (CCO), which included community work and alcohol rehabilitation.
“Dr Arulanandarajah admits he engaged in the conduct described … The victim provided a statement indicating that the incident contributed to many subsequent adverse events in her life. These include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression,” the tribunal noted.
After the court case, Dr Arulanandarajah moved with his family to remote Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, “to re-evaluate his work practices and lifestyle”, and keep working as a doctor.
The Medical Board of Australia had decided twice in the past not to take immediate action against Dr Arulanandarajah, “first … after the charges were laid . . the second occasion was after he was convicted”, because it believed he did not pose a risk to others, the panel noted.
It’s understood his criminal conviction preceded an overhaul of health practitioner laws in 2018. Before then, medical boards were stymied from taking immediate action over the alleged conduct of practitioners, unless they believed they posed a serious risk to patients or the public.
There were also delays because Dr Arulanandarajah had moved to Western Australia.
Former Geelong Football Club doctor Christopher Bradshaw
Sanction: Registration suspended until October 2025.
For: The former doctor at the Geelong Football Club was stripped of his medical licence in 2020 after he had sex with a female patient and prescribed her medications she later overdosed on. Bradshaw breached the medical practitioner’s code of conduct by having sex with the woman and prescribing her with an array of drugs including oxycodone, diazepam and fentanyl, VCAT found.
History: Bradshaw, who also worked with Melbourne and Richmond AFL teams, and with English Premier League club Fulham, treated the woman for a hip injury from 2008.
Their relationship turned intimate between 2011 and 2016 when he continued to treat her.
The woman, who came from a background of family violence, died in 2017.
In October 2018, the Medical Board of Australia referred the allegations to VCAT.
The tribunal heard the woman’s brother found material relating to her relationship with Bradshaw, including photographs, greeting cards, love notes and records of their communications.
In her diary, she wrote about taking her own life and “expressed the feeling that she had been used by Dr Bradshaw before she was rejected by him and left without medical care”.
In a statement to the board, Bradshaw said he was “distraught that (he) played (a) part in (her) taking her own life”.
A Queensland coroner concluded the woman took her own life by ingesting a toxic amount of fentanyl, a drug that she was not prescribed.
Men’s health doctor: Conway Lee
Sanction: Medical licence cancelled for six years from mid-2020. However, while Dr Lee has been banned from seeing patients, he is allowed to apply for other work in the medical field, including as an educator or adviser.
For: Putting “his own sexual gratification above the will of his patient” when he propositioned a patient on the gay dating app Grindr, made him masturbate during a consultation and asked if he could make a “home visit”.
History: VCAT noted Dr Lee crossed boundaries when he flirted with a patient on Grindr, used sexualised language during a check-up and conducted “sexualised and/or inappropriate examinations of his patients’ genitals”.
The Medical Board told the tribunal: “The conduct was inconsistent with Dr Lee being a fit and proper person to hold registration as a medical practitioner.”
In several consultations, while taking the blood pressure of one of his patients, Dr Lee also placed his hand high up on the “inner thigh in a flirtatious and inappropriate manner”.
VCAT found Dr Lee’s conduct to be a “gross boundary violation” and too serious for his medical licence to just be suspended.
“We have reached the conclusion that Dr Lee should be disqualified from applying for registration for six years from the date of this decision,” VCAT determined on May 26.
GP: Mike Yeo
Sanction: Registration cancelled for two years from late-2019, for professional misconduct.
For: Having sex with a teenage, vulnerable single mother patient and inappropriate text messaging with the same patient, and also failing to demonstrate any insight into the inappropriate nature of his conduct.
History: In mid-2011, when Dr Yeo was aged 54 and his patient 19, the former Montrose Swansea Road Clinic doctor and practice partner is alleged to have had sex with a young, single mother three times – at least once in a clinic pathology room during a consultation – knowing how vulnerable she was.
He had treated the patient for many years and had also treated her mother. The patient had been treated for depressive episodes and self-esteem issues and he had known her since she was a little girl.
VCAT was told Dr Yeo was married to the clinic manager when the sex took place in mid-2011.
“In the Tribunal’s view this constituted grooming of a young and vulnerable patient who had been known to Dr Yeo since she was a child,” it said in ordering his medical registration be cancelled.
“That vulnerability was exacerbated by the relationship of trust which existed as a result of Dr Yeo having been her family doctor for a lengthy period of time and the significant age difference between them.”
Dr Yeo had made “ongoing and vigorous denials and attacks” on the victim and his “lack of frankness with the board” had played a part in the long delay in the matter being finalised, the Tribunal said.
He had also failed to demonstrate any insight into the inappropriate nature of his conduct.
The transgressions followed a notification to the Medical Board in March 2010, where a finding was made that “Dr Yeo had engaged in unprofessional conduct with respect to transgressing the patient/doctor boundary with another female patient”, and was ordered to have counselling.
Private school doctor David Mackey
The former live-in doctor at Geelong Grammar School lived out his days on the sex offenders registry after facing court in late 2019.
In 2013 Mackey was handed a suspended jail sentence for raping a female patient and indecently assaulting another at a Geelong medical clinic in 2010.
Mackey was working at the clinic when he digitally penetrated the vagina of a woman who attended to have a thumb injury examined.
He also cupped a woman’s breasts during a separate incident about a month later.
In 2019 he faced court where he pleaded guilty in the County Court to three charges of indecent assault and was put on a two-year corrections order and fined $2000.
Those offences took place between 1972 and 1975, while Mackey worked at the school’s campus in Corio.
Multiple historic complaints against Mackey emerged following state and national royal commissions into sexual assaults at non-government organisations.
At one point, Victoria Police’s SANO task force had more than 15 former students making allegations about the man’s conduct as a GP.
He died in December 2020.
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