A costs award of nearly $470,000 against a group of ophthalmologists was a lesson and a warning for the medical profession, says the Medical Association.
Association chairwoman Tricia Briscoe said yesterday that the medical profession would carefully consider the implications of the convictions and fines.
The case is thought to be thefirst in New Zealand and Australia where members of a profession have been found to have acted anti-competitively.
In the High Court at Wellington on Wednesday Justice Warwick Gendall ordered the Ophthalmological Society to pay a $100,000 penalty, Invercargill eye surgeon Brett Rogers $25,000 and Christchurch surgeon Mark Elder $5000. The penalties go to the Crown.
In addition, those three and eye surgeons Philip Boulton, Ken Tarr, and Richard Clemett have to pay $467,870 - or $77,978 each if split evenly - in costs to the Commerce Commission.
Justice Gendall had previously found that each of them had breached competition law. He decided that only the society, Rogers and Elder should pay a penalty, but the $467,870 contribution to the commission's legal costs was against all six.
The finding has been the sting in the tail for eye doctors who kept foreign surgeons from cutting cataract surgery waiting lists in Southland seven-and-a-half years ago.
The Commerce Commission brought the case against the ophthalmologists.
Dr Briscoe said that doctors, like all professional people, must ensure that their businesses operated in accordance with the Commerce Act.
The association had held discussions with the commission, she said. "We would be concerned if this case led to doctors feeling constrained about speaking to their colleagues about patient safety issues, for fear of breaching the Commerce Act."
Dr Briscoe noted that the fines imposed were at the lower end of the scale and were much less than the commission sought.
