KEY POINTS:
An unnamed doctor has been hit with a $7500 fine, censured and ordered to pay $50,000 costs following surgery in 2002 on a woman for breast reduction and liposuction of her stomach and upper arms.
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal also recommended the Medical Council decide whether a competence review of the doctor's practice should be done.
He has appealed the tribunal's decision to lift suppression of his name.
The tribunal said yesterday that interim orders made by the High Court in July meant it was not possible to publish details about the doctor or certain other details.
The case against the doctor - that he failed to adequately inform the patient of the risks involved and failed to ensure she understood what was going to happen - was proved, it said. A charge the doctor failed to keep adequate records was also established.
But the tribunal threw out charges that he had botched some of the work, leaving the woman with poorly placed, extensively scarred and poorly shaped breasts.
It also found unproved a charge that the doctor had performed procedures for which he was inadequately qualified and trained.
The doctor was ordered to pay costs of $25,000 each to the director of proceedings which brought the charges, and to the tribunal.
Interim orders mean suppression of any details of the areas of surgery in which the doctor practices and the geographical areas in which he practices.
Hospitals and staff involved also cannot be named.
- NZPA
