Doctor's skill and attitude terrified supervisor

A senior consultant psychiatrist says he was terrified when supervising former Southland Hospital doctor Peter Fisher because Dr Fisher's practice was so bad.

The psychiatrist, who has name suppression, told the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal yesterday that Dr Fisher appeared plausible and professional at face value, but on close examination "his skills were questionable and illusory".

"Dr Fisher displayed a difficulty in recognising and diagnosing psychosis, in particular schizophrenia, appeared to have overvalued ideas [of] his own skills and abilities, exhibited questionable prescribing practices ... and displayed a reluctance to share information with me."

The psychiatrist was asked to provide remedial supervision to Dr Fisher after the Mark Burton tragedy in 2001.

Dr Fisher was Mark Burton's principal doctor during Burton's stay in the mental health unit that year.

Shortly after release, Burton drove to Queenstown and killed his mother, Paddy.

Last year, Dr Fisher was found guilty of professional misconduct and suspended from practice for six months.

His boss, Tom O'Flynn, clinical director of mental health services for the Southland District Health Board, is also charged with professional misconduct for failing to adequately supervise Dr Fisher.

Dr O'Flynn's hearing began in Invercargill last week.

The psychiatrist who gave evidence to the tribunal for Dr O'Flynn yesterday said trying to supervise Dr Fisher was "wearying and alarming".

The psychiatrist said he would wake up in the middle of the night terrified because the blame for any of Dr Fisher's mistakes would fall on him.

"Clearly matters were profoundly worrying to me."

Dr Fisher was hard to track down, would lie, and failed to do what he was requested, he said.

The psychiatrist said he came to refer to Dr Fisher as "the elusive pimpernel" because he was often missing.

His cellphone would be turned off and sometimes he failed to carry his pager with him.

"He was duplicitous; hard to pin down."

Dr Fisher did not appear interested in meeting any of the requirements in the supervision contract, the psychiatrist said.

"I got the impression he thought I would just facilitate business as usual for him."

Within three months, the psychiatrist withdrew from the supervision contract.

"This led to his [Dr Fisher's] ultimately being removed from all clinical patient care responsibility, and eventually to a leave of absence from the service following an internal disciplinary inquiry."

Dr O'Flynn's hearing ended last night and the tribunal reserved its decision.