Doctor accused of prescribing drugs to herself

A doctor accused of prescribing drugs to herself lost name suppression when she failed to attend a disciplinary hearing today.

Dr Angnieska Elzbieta Kleszcz was a registrar at Rehab Plus, an Auckland District Health Board rehabilitation facility in Pt Chevalier.

A Medical Council committee alleges that the doctor wrote prescriptions in the name of a patient for medicines that were for her own use.

The alleged professional misconduct occurred in September and October 2014 and involved drugs including diazepam and pethidine.

The committee's lawyer, Jonathan Coates, said Kleszcz presented the prescriptions and collected the drugs from a West Auckland pharmacy.

The charges include that Kleszcz "falsely claimed and/or misrepresented to pharmacy staff that she was the patient's case worker and/or care worker".

Kleszcz had interim name suppression until the hearing but the five member tribunal voted 4 to 1 to lift the earlier order.

Chairman David Carden said the reasons for lifting suppression were that it was a public hearing, it had been publicly notified and the public were entitled to know who the doctor was.

Kleszcz, who had participated in early preparations for the hearing, "has not made written application for continuation of the order for non-publication of her name".

One tribunal member, Dr Paul Malpass, wanted interim suppression to continue until the evidence was heard and a decision made.

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The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Kleszcz is now in Western Australia.