Michael Houlding operated a mobile service, mainly treating patients at home and at aged care facilities. Photo / File
Michael Houlding operated a mobile service, mainly treating patients at home and at aged care facilities. Photo / File
A Tauranga physiotherapist who treated elderly has been struck off and forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars.
Michael Houlding, 71, was an ACC treatment provider.
He failed to keep adequate records of 2033 visits he made to 74 patients - mainly at home and at aged care facilities- when he operated a mobile service between January 1, 2011 and August 6, 2016.
Houlding's "serious breaches" were described in a decision released by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal this month.
"ACC relies heavily on the trustworthiness of a physiotherapist that claims for funding are made accurately and honestly," it said, and that charges can be laid in court if this trust is abused.
"ACC referred clearly to this in a letter delivered to Mr Houlding dated January 21, 2019. It referred to the prospect of sufficient evidence to commence a criminal prosecution against him for obtaining or causing loss by deception and misleading the ACC.
"As it transpires, the ACC decided instead to issue Mr Houlding with a formal warning which it did."
The physio put his actions down to "laziness" but the tribunal said this explanation "just simply does not carry water" because he had "adequate warning".
Houlding was advised in an email that his ACC-invoiced treatments needed proper records in December 2015, told in a letter in April 2016 his records weren't up to standard and advised again in a meeting with ACC in May 2016 that he needed good clinical records.
In May 2016 ACC sent a letter to Houlding saying it would continue to monitor the standard of his records.
In July 2018 he was told to submit clinical records for each ACC-invoiced treatment he had completed, for a clinical adviser to assess.
"Despite those communications, Mr Houlding continued to provide ACC-funded treatment without adequate or accurate clinical records."
The ACC branch in Tauranga. Photo / File
For example, he saw one patient 67 times for six different claims and the only associated record was an initial assessment sheet.
The Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand received a complaint and an investigation ensued.
The board's Professional Conduct Committee laid a charge and a tribunal hearing was held in Auckland last December.
Houlding admitted all of the allegations in their entirety.
This included: failing to keep accurate and adequate records and failing to document informed consent for 73 out of 74 patients.
He also "failed to record the mechanism of injury, assessment or diagnosis".
Houlding said he normally relied on the initial assessment sheet to determine treatment and goal setting and "if anything significant happened he would make a note of it".
"But more often than not, if the patient's progress was reasonably steady and predictable, he would not record it."
The tribunal said this was a "fundamental failure".
Houlding used phone calls from relatives and rest home carers as consent but said: "in a majority of cases there would be a phone call from the patients themselves".
The tribunal said, "consent should not, and need not, be given by a relative or someone on a patient's behalf".
A letter from Houlding's lawyers said he had had "a long and previously unblemished career" but had to stop working, shortening his working life and resulting in "substantial financial penalties".
However, ACC said Houlding "benefited significantly", estimating he was paid $261,759.33 as a provider between 2011 and 2016.
Houlding was censured, his registration was cancelled and he was fined $5000 by the tribunal.
He was ordered to pay another $27,000, to be divided equally between the Professional Conduct Committee and the tribunal, to help cover prosecution costs.
The tribunal said it was "anxious to get the message to the physiotherapy profession that standards must be maintained".
