The former Southland Hospital doctor found guilty of professional misconduct over his care of a mental health patient who killed his mother has been barred from practising for six months and ordered to pay $86,000.
Dr Peter Fisher was found guilty of professional misconduct on November 27.
In a lengthy report released
this week, the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal ordered that Dr Fisher's registration be suspended for six months immediately.
He will not be able to practise in psychiatry and psychological medicine unless he is first accepted into and participates satisfactorily in a vocational training programme for three years.
Dr Fisher was directed to pay $86,411 in costs to the tribunal, the director of the proceedings and the Health and Disability Commissioner.
A day after being released from the mental health unit in 2001, Mark Burton drove to Queenstown and stabbed his mother, Paddy, to death.
He was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity at a trial.
Dr Fisher was found guilty after a seven-day trial of 17 of 27 elements of the charges laid by the Health and Disability Commissioner's director of proceedings, Morag McDowell.
But tribunal chairman David Collins, QC, said it was not felt that Dr Fisher's failings amounted to the more serious charge of disgraceful conduct.
In announcing the penalties, the tribunal said it had found Dr Fisher's management of Mark Burton was "seriously deficient in a number of significant areas".
But the report stressed that "it must not be thought that there is a causal link between Dr Fisher's errors and the tragic death of Mrs Burton".
"The tribunal's decision should not be construed as suggesting Dr Fisher's acts and omissions caused Mrs Burton's death."
Dr Fisher had been employed by Southland Hospital as a psychiatric medical officer, special scale, which is below the level of a vocationally registered specialist.
In some New Zealand centres, about 50 per cent of the medical staff employed in the public psychiatric service are of this grade.
- NZPA
