KEY POINTS:
A family lawyer was surprised and concerned when his elderly clients told him they had paid their doctor and his partner $320,000 for "free" medical care.
Auckland GP Dr Donald Ian McDonald has admitted accepting $260,000 from the couple, but is denying he failed to appropriately manage their healthcare.
His conduct is the subject of a Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Auckland.
The tribunal yesterday heard how the couple, whose names are suppressed, paid Dr McDonald various sums amounting to $260,000 between January 1998 and November 2004.
They also paid his former de factor partner Aruna Williams $60,000.
Prosecuting lawyer Jo Hughson said in accepting the money Dr McDonald was breaching his position of trust as a GP.
Dr McDonald, who was not at the hearing, accepted that the payments did occur - an admission that amounts to professional misconduct.
The payments are the subject of proceedings in the High Court in Auckland. From his court statement of defence made available to the tribunal, Dr McDonald said the couple initially lent him $100,000 with a verbal agreement that he would provide medical services to them but would not render any invoice.
The loan would be repaid by the provision of medical services at his normal rate.
He valued the services provided to them at $235,170, which included 750 consultations at $260 each between 1999 and 2005.
"They wanted me to have the money. On a number of occasions I offered to pay it back and in fact, wrote out several cheques which they refused to accept."
Dr McDonald does not accept the second allegation that between January 1999 and August 2005, he failed to appropriately manage the couple's medical care.
The tribunal heard the practising acupuncturist and GP of 36 years had known the couple for about 25 years, but had become their GP in late 1998. The couple were in their 80s in 2005, and had no children.
Ms Hughson said the husband was a wealthy businessman but the couple became increasingly socially isolated as they aged.
The elderly man died in December last year, while his wife is in a rest home and suffers from dementia.
The tribunal also heard the couple signed new wills in March 2005 giving their property in Mairangi Bay to the doctor.
The couple's lawyer Stephen Gully valued the property at $800,000. He later learnt with "surprise and consternation" that Dr McDonald had accepted the payments.
The prosecution's key witness, GP Dr Jim Vause, told the tribunal that in accepting large sums of money from his patients, Dr McDonald could be regarded as having exploited his doctor-patient relationship with them.
He also said Dr McDonald's recordkeeping was "disorganised" and "inadequate". The wife was being prescribed drugs for a heart problem, but Dr Vause could find nothing to indicate she had one. Between April 2004 and March 2005, she was seen 44 times by Dr McDonald but given medicines only on nine occasions.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
