SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal hands down periodic bans and one lifetime prohibition in 2022
From faking sick certificates to serious criminal offences, these SA medical professionals were slapped with penalties last year – with one vet banned for life.
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Medical professionals were banned for a combined 42 years in 2022, with one vet receiving a lifetime ban for the squalid state of his regional clinic.
A review of cases handed down by the SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal shows that doctors, nurses, a dentist and a psychologist were brought before the disciplinary body last year.
Allegations brought before the Tribunal ranged from relatively minor misconduct such as faking medical certificates to serious criminal matters. Here are 10 of the cases.
Daniel Szkup
Registered Nurse
Formally reprimanded, registration cancelled, banned for three years.
In October 2019 Daniel Szkup was placed on restrictions by the Nursing and Midwifery Board requiring him to undergo random urine drug screening.
He had tested positive to methamphetamines prior to the restrictions being put in place.
The Tribunal found that Mr Szkup had not been undergoing the tests. He was also charged with disturbing the police and formally cautioned for stalking over interactions with his neighbours.
Mr Szkup failed to notify the Board about his arrest.
During the hearing before the Tribunal Mr Szkup described evidence tendered by the Board as “crap”, tore up an affidavit and stormed out.
Dr Cameron Day
Medical Practitioner
Reprimanded, suspended for two months and placed on practising restrictions.
Cameron Day, while practising at a clinic in the southern suburbs and Adelaide Hills, hugged a female patient and made inappropriate comments.
He told the female patient while performing a muscle massage around her thighs that she made him “question his morals” every time she came in.
“I enjoy when you come in, I just really like putting my hands on you,” he said.
The Tribunal also found that Dr Day did not offer the patient the opportunity to cover herself when he would perform massage therapy around her thighs.
Dr Day did not keep adequate notes about the therapy and the required consent.
He later apologised to the patient and as found to have been in the grips of a mental state which could have “affected his professional judgment”.
Robert Wayne Bevan
Paramedic
Formally reprimanded, registration cancelled, banned for two years.
Robert Bevan begun a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient he was transferring from one country town to another in August 2019.
Despite being told the woman was known for “manipulative behaviour” and was only to be treated by a female paramedic, Mr Bevan gave her his mobile number.
Over the next two and half months the pair exchanged 1746 texts and had 190 phone conversations.
The Tribunal ruled that their relationship was “sexual and intimate”. Bevan was suspended from his job when a complaint was made that he was dating the patient and later resigned from the role of paramedic.
Dr Leong Fook Ng
Medical Practitioner
Registration cancelled and banned for 15 years. Additionally, permanently banned from providing any health services.
The Tribunal was asked to consider a serious complaint of misconduct allegedly committed by Leong Fook Ng.
However, before that was considered the Tribunal heard that the 69-year-old Dr Ng had not practised medicine since 2020 and had a “significant degenerative medical impairment”.
Both Dr Ng’s lawyers and the Medical Board of Australia agreed that he should be struck off for at least 15 years and placed on a permanent ban from performing any other health services.
The Tribunal did not make a finding on the original misconduct complaint.
Dr Marjorie Tidman
Psychologist
Formally reprimanded, banned for 15 months.
Marjorie Tidman’s registration as a psychologist expired on December 1, 2020. For four years before then she had held “non-practising” registration, restricting her ability to practise.
The Tribunal found that Dr Tidman had provided psychological services to a family member as well as running “resilience” workshops and offering counselling to members of the Bahai’i religious community.
The Tribunal also found that for almost four years Dr Tidman had provided counselling to a person she had witnessed being the victim of a robbery.
She was not allowed to provide any of these services.
Dr Geoffrey Warren
Veterinarian
Formally reprimanded, permanently banned from providing veterinary services.
An experienced vet of 40 years, Geoffrey Warren was permanently banned after the state of his Jamestown clinic came to light.
Video and photos showed a build-up of faeces and used surgical utensils in a sink at Dr Warren’s surgery while kennelling facilities had no clean bedding and no access to water.
witnesses described the surgery as “awful”, “sickening”, “atrocious” and having an “overwhelming smell of urine”.
One witness said she was “ashamed of the state of the surgery” and that she had “never seen a surgical facility like that in nearly 40 years of practising”.
Dr Warren had previously been reprimanded in 2013 for similar hygiene failures at his facility.
Dr Shaun Albert Nicholas
Medical Practitioner
Formally reprimanded, banned for 11 years.
Shaun Nicholas was jailed for 17 months with a non-parole period of one year for indecently assaulting a 14-year-old child and communicating with a 16-year-old child with the purpose of making them amenable to sexual activity.
Dr Nicholas was in his late 20s at the time of the offending.
During sentencing then District Court Judge Julie McIntyre said Dr Nicholas had not explained his offending in any way and must have known what he was doing was illegal.
However, in a letter to the AHPRA, the medical practitioner watchdog, Dr Nicholas claimed to have been set up and called his victim a liar.
On finishing his sentence Dr Nicholas was deported to Malaysia.
Kirsty Seabrook
Registered Nurse
Formally reprimanded, banned for four years.
While working as a nurse at a Barossa Valley nursing home, Kirsty Seabrook stole a prescription pad and forged prescriptions in the name of a doctor.
She issued seven scripts for highly addictive Schedule 8 drugs and later lied to investigators.
Ms Seabrook, while under investigation, went on to work as a nurse at an unnamed school.
She lied to the Nursing and Midwifery Board, claiming she was a first aid officer rather than a nurse and claiming she did not have access to pain killers.
She was charged with criminal offending including theft and uttering forged prescriptions.
Andrew Thomas Roberts
Pharmacist
Formally reprimanded, banned for five years.
While working at a pharmacy in Adelaide, Andrew Roberts created false records and prescribed himself drugs of dependence.
He was entrusted with use of the pharmacies money and drug safe as well as the computer programs used to dispense drugs.
A later investigation conducted after Mr Roberts had resigned found he had created false records on 39 different occasions and dispensed 68 false prescriptions.
He was charged with theft and dishonestly manipulating a machine for his own benefit.
After resigning, Mr Roberts used a copy of his work key to enter the store on several occasions to steal drugs.
He was sentenced to six months and nine days imprisonment, which was suspended.
Dr Katheryn McKenna
Dentist
Formally reprimanded and required to undertake mentoring for two years.
The experienced dentist failed to attend a compulsory seminars on May 28 and June 15, 2020.
On both occasions Katheryn McKenna emailed through a medical certificate purportedly from a medical practitioner explaining her absence.
It was later found that both certificates had been faked by Dr McKenna.
When questioned, she originally maintained the lie and said the certificates had been lost.
The Tribunal accepted that Dr McKenna had been under a lot of stress at the time but still categorised her actions as professional misconduct.
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