Paltridge was suspended by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) over the professional misconduct, but the suspension ended in March this year following a hearing last September.
At the time, he was working as a doctor at a rest home in Auckland and still works at a rest home.
Paltridge has a history of professional misconduct - he was found guilty in 2011 of prescribing hormone therapy to menopausal women without consulting or examining them.
In that case, the HPDT censured and ordered Paltridge to pay costs of $65,000. In 2007, he was charged with drink-driving.
According to the tribunal’s decision in the most recent case, Paltridge failed to take a full medical history of the unnamed drug-seeking patient and did not investigate his brain injury or consult the man’s GP, which the tribunal said was negligent.
The decision, published last month, also said between February 2011 and September 2016, Paltridge imported or directed others to import prescription medicines where the named patients were not under his care and did not receive the drugs.
This included 28 amounts of performance and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs), medicines including steroids and human growth hormone (HGH).
Between October 2012 and January 2017, the doctor prescribed and imported testosterone and HGH, together with other agents to counteract the effects of testosterone abuse, to six patients he did not hold medical records for.
He lied about who the restricted drugs were for in patient lists to Medsafe, the agency responsible for regulating medicine and medical devices in New Zealand.
The tribunal said Paltridge’s actions were unethical and a significant breach of his obligations. It suspended him for six months, fined him $5000 and ordered him to pay costs of $35,000.
The Herald asked police whether criminal charges had been laid against Paltridge over the case, but an adviser said a search of the police National Intelligence Application under his name suggested the matter was not reported to police, meaning no criminal investigation has been conducted.
The Medical Council said the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC), an investigatory body that brings charges against a practitioner to the tribunal, was best placed to determine whether the doctor’s conduct warranted police involvement.
Medical Council chief executive Joan Simeon said there was a clear statutory process for a recommendation from the PCC under the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Act for the council to refer the matter to police.
“The PCC did not recommend that, but rather it determined a charge should be brought against the doctor before the HPDT.
“While we cannot speculate on the reasons, the PCC was clearly of the view that filing a disciplinary charge was the most appropriate means to address the conduct.
“In addition, there was close liaison with the appropriate agencies, including the Ministry of Health, Medsafe’s investigation and enforcement team and Customs.”
Paltridge, who worked as a real estate agent in 2019, told the Herald he couldn’t comment on whether he should face criminal charges.
“I’ve moved on from that. It was some time ago, and I’m just trying to be a good GP.”
Paltridge does not hold the vocational qualification of being a specialist General Practitioner though his scope of practice is general.
There was no data kept by police or the Ministry of Justice on convictions by occupation, so neither could determine whether illegal importation of restricted drugs by doctors was rare or commonplace.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said Medsafe’s records did not easily differentiate between imports by doctors and others including companies, individuals, pharmacies and licenced wholesalers.
The spokesperson said under Section 25 of the Medicines Act 1981, authorised prescribers, who were most often medical practitioners, were entitled to import an unapproved medicine for a particular patient under their care, provided the patient was identified as needing the medicine at the time of importation.
“Doctors importing medicines must ensure that they comply with the law. This requires that they may only import non-consented (unapproved) medicines for patients known and identifiable to them and are required to have testing certificates and provide them to Medsafe, if requested.
“They are also professionally responsible for ensuring the medicines they prescribe are safe and efficacious.”
“Medsafe is not aware of any other similar instances of doctors supplying inaccurate import lists.”
Natalie Akoorie is the Open Justice deputy editor, based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 27 years, recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.
