The Employment Court has awarded $3600 rather than the $50,000 sum sought by a Northland doctor sacked for prescribing controlled drugs to her partner.
Dr Lynda Marie Emmerson was working at Whangārei Hospital's Tumanako mental health unit as a psychiatric registrar when she prescribed controlled drugs - including morphine, diazepam, dihydrocodeine tartrate, amoxicillin and tramadol - to her partner, who was not a patient in the unit.
She also wrote prescriptions for her partner's mother and a work colleague.
Her employer, the Northland District Health Board, complained to the Medical Council of New Zealand and the Health Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal subsequently cancelled her registration.
She lost an appeal in the High Court against the decision of the Medical Council's professional conduct committee (PCC) that recommended her registration be cancelled.