Addict doctor censured

A doctor with a history of drug addiction has been censured for forging a prescription to obtain pethidine.

Registered as an anaesthetist, the doctor did not defend himself and accepts his behaviour was professional misconduct, according to a Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal verdict published this week.

The tribunal decided to end its interim suppression of the doctor's name, but it cannot be published as he has appealed to a district court.

The tribunal's decision said "Dr K" forged on a number of prescriptions in 2003 and last year the signature of another doctor so he could obtain pethidine for his own use.

Pethidine is a synthetic sedative and painkiller which is similar to morphine, but weaker.

Since 1992, Dr K had been addicted to opium-like drugs, treated, and monitored by the Medical Council's health committee, the decision said. He suffered a relapse, discovered when his forging of prescriptions was picked up. He had also been diagnosed with depression.

The tribunal levied him for costs of $4148 and imposed conditions for three years, including that his work be overseen by a specialist, that he not prescribe class B controlled drugs and that he undergo urine and hair tests when required.