Doctor found guilty of prescribing drugs to wife, family, friends, colleagues

The doctor, whose name supppression will be reassessed at his sentencing, over-prescribed many medications to family, friends and colleagues. Photo / File

A doctor faces disciplinary sanction after being found guilty of supplying friends, family and colleagues excessive amounts of prescription drugs.

The doctor, who has name suppression until his sentencing, was found guilty of seven charges by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal after a hearing in 2017.

The Tribunal went so far as to express concern about the doctor's behaviour due to his own background with "drugs dependence".

The charges, brought by the Professional Conduct Committee [PCC] on behalf of the Medical Council of New Zealand, also relate to the doctor over-prescribing a variety of prescription medication including midazolam, diazepam and pethidine.

The Tribunal heard how the doctor gave the drugs to his wife, mother-in-law, son, daughter and colleagues.

In its decision, it found the doctor "has shown a significant lack of objectivity in prescribing for his wife".

"[Wife] said that the fact was that [doctor] probably just never said no to her when she asked him; and the Tribunal accepts the submission that that is a significant indicator of lack of objectivity on [doctor's] part.

"Although spread over three years, there was significant prescribing by Dr N
for his wife. This included midazolam, triazolam and diazepam."

The PCC emphasised that there was prescription of medicines to eight colleagues on 25 occasions between October 2012 and July 2015.

When questioned at the hearing about the prescriptions, the doctor replied "I'm sorry, I can't recall".

The tribunal panel noted while it was concerned about the doctor's own personal history of drug use there was no suggestion he had prescribed them to himself.

"What it is concerned about is that, in the context particularly of [doctor's] own background with drugs of dependence, there are these facts concerning these drugs.

"There has been excessive supply of pethidine to [person] when there were real alternatives. There was the prescription for [wife] own drugs in excess of what she needed ... for midazolam and triazolam.

"There was excessive ordering by the doctor of diazepam for the purpose of diversion or misuse.

"These indicate significant background concerns and penalty submissions should be made in that context."

The charges relate to offending carried out between 2010 and July 2015 and involve about 15 different medications.

The doctor, through his lawyer, was given the opportunity to provide submissions around a penalty.