A doctor who failed to get a patient's informed consent before performing abdominal surgery has been ordered to pay costs of more than $19,000.
The Medical Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal, which found the doctor guilty of professional misconduct in June, issued its decision yesterday on penalty and permanently suppressed the doctor's name.
The
case involved a "tummy tuck" operation which was performed in December 2000.
The doctor's application for name suppression said the charge involved culpability at the lower end of the spectrum and there was no strong public interest in publishing the doctor's name.
It said she had an otherwise unblemished record and posed no threat to public safety.
She also had a medical condition which was likely to be aggravated if her name was published in association with the tribunal's findings against her, and publication would irreparably damage her professional reputation.
In June, the tribunal decided the patient's consent was "not valid" due to the effects of a drug she had taken an hour earlier, and because the doctor inappropriately sought her consent "in the corridor of the theatre suite". The patient "had no time to consider and reflect" before the surgery.
The doctor also failed to properly inform the anaesthetist of the proposed procedure, before the patient was anaesthetised.
However, it stopped short of recommending she be disciplined for that, as the doctor had "learned a valuable lesson".
The tribunal ordered her to pay total costs of $19,267.83.
- NZPA
