Sacked doctor ordered to pay costs

A doctor sacked for prescribing drugs to her partner from Whangarei Hospital's Tumanako mental health unit, above, has to pay $8500 towards the cost of prosecuting her case.

A doctor who was justifiably sacked for prescribing controlled drugs to her partner while she was working at Whangarei Hospital has been ordered to pay $8500 towards the costs of Northland District Health Board taking the case to the Employment Relations Authority.

Last year Dr Lynda Emmerson took a personal grievance against the DHB to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) claiming unjustified dismissal and unjustified disadvantage.

ERA member Tania Tetitaha dismissed the claims, saying there was enough evidence for NDHB to find that Dr Emmerson had committed serious misconduct.

Dr Emmerson was sacked by NDHB in May 2015 for serious misconduct, after she prescribed controlled drugs - including morphine - from the Tumanako mental health unit to her partner, who was not a patient in the unit.

In a decision released this week the ERA has now ordered Dr Emmerson to pay $8500 towards the DHB's legal costs. NDHB said it's actual costs of fighting the case were $166,661.62.

In the decision ERA member Ms Tetitaha said the initial hearing took eight days.

The DHB argued that several aspects of the way Dr Emmerson conducted her case led to unnecessarily increased costs, including the need for a further teleconference; non-compliance with directions to file further information about the alleged unjustified disadvantages; adjourning the January 2016 hearing due to allegations raised about the conduct of the then DHB's counsel during the disciplinary process and an unsuccessful application to remove the case to the Employment Court.

But Ms Tetitaha found the further teleconference was helpful because it reduced what were potentially a number of disadvantages into one and this did not deserve an increased costs award.

She gave a modest increase in costs for the non-compliance with directions and said while the adjournment of the January 2016 hearing was not necessarily "wasted costs" Dr Emmerson's last-minute allegations against the DHB's counsel did unnecessarily increase costs, including the DHB having to instruct new counsel. This required a substantial uplift in costs.

"Having considered the above factors it is appropriate to uplift the daily notional tariff (for costs) by $2000 to $5500 - accordingly costs are increased to $46,750," Ms Tetitaha said.

When it then comes to looking at whether there any factors that warrant reducing the daily tariff she said a party's ability to pay costs can be taken into account.

She said Dr Emmerson's financial declaration to the ERA showed she had no assets in her personal name, had liabilities of $80,000 and was on a Winz benefit. This meant she would have difficulty meeting costs of $46,750 so the costs were set at $8500.