Dr Tony Hanne has been censured, suspended from practice and ordered to pay costs and a fine.
A leading GP who wrote thousands of prescriptions for ADHD medication without specialist approval has been suspended and ordered to more than $175,000 in costs and a fine.
But Dr John Anthony Hanne, better known as Dr Tony Hanne, has indicated he would appeal to the High Court against the penalty decision of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
In the tribunal’s decision, released yesterday, Hanne was suspended from practicing for one year, censured, fined $12,500 and ordered to pay $162,620 in costs.
He was also banned from prescribing Ritalin and will have any other prescription he issued reviewed by the Medical Council every three months once he returns to practice.
“The tribunal considered that although the Doctor had made a significant contribution to the study and diagnoses of ADHD that had at times been life-changing for his patients, he was doing so without the required qualification or supervision,” the decision stated.
“Despite multiple warnings, the Doctor stubbornly refused to accept any suggestion that he might be acting improperly.”
Last year, Hanne was found guilty of professional misconduct by the tribunal for prescribing methylphenidate, or Ritalin, and dexamphetamine 5662 times without properly consulting a psychiatrist first and submitting false and misleading claims to Pharmac for subsidies of the drugs on 214 occasions.
GPs are not allowed to prescribe either drug without approval from a specialist paediatrician or psychiatrist.
The drug subsidies he claimed required him to have approval from a psychiatrist to prescribe them, and because he didn’t, he misled Pharmac.
Hanne worked with a psychiatrist who did not see or speak with the patients but still approved the prescriptions.
Throughout his career, Hanne, now in his 80s, developed a special interest in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and centred his practice around its assessment and treatment. He would regularly receive referrals from other doctors due to his expertise in the area.
It is his opinion that the disorder remains chronically underdiagnosed and undertreated in New Zealand which was why Hanne chose to ignore rules around how the drugs used to treat it were prescribed.
“I believe in the best for my patients,” he told NZME today.
“There are so many people who need help in this area and they aren’t getting it because regulations are standing in the way.”
“The care of my patients is more important than those regulations. Especially when those regulations are not sensible.”
Hanne said there weren’t enough psychiatrists available to assess patients whom family doctors identified as potentially having ADHD.
Because of this, there were long waits for a diagnosis, Hanne said.
“Patients should have the freedom to be treated by the doctors who know them best.”
According to the Ministry of Health, there are around 280,000 people in New Zealand diagnosed with ADHD but a further 20 per cent do not realise they have it.
While the majority of the tribunal’s allegations against Hanne were not in dispute, he maintained the system for ADHD diagnosis in New Zealand was “broken”.
“This is a sad case, uniquely of a medical practitioner, accepted by all to be highly experienced and competent in the management of ADHD, doing his very best for his patients, without self-interest,” his lawyer, Harry Waalkens, KC, said in submissions to the tribunal.
“He has epitomised the adoption of a patient-focused approach to the seriously under-resourced and broken ADHD health management system.”
Waalkens acknowledged the tribunal did not have the power to change that system, but it could send a message that “change must happen”.
However, the tribunal disagreed and said it did not have a role in lobbying for change and doing so would be a “slippery slope”.
“It is difficult to escape an impression that, even now, he does not really accept that he has done anything much wrong,” the tribunal said.
It said he had prescribed “addictive and dangerous” drugs without the right qualification or supervision and despite multiple warnings over the years he “stubbornly” refused to accept he was acting improperly.
The tribunal noted that he applied for Pharmac subsidies for his patients despite giving false information and benefitted financially from his dishonesty.
Hanne’s conduct was the subject of disciplinary proceedings in 2011 but the charges were eventually withdrawn.
In 2014, he established an arrangement with Psychiatrist Dr Allan Taylor which was referred to in the tribunal’s decision as the “Taylor Arrangement”.
Under that arrangement, Taylor would rarely see the patients himself and would meet with Hanne at least once a year to discuss his patients in detail.
Hanne was told in 2011 and 2014 to stop what he was doing but ignored the warning. In 2018, he signed an undertaking to cease prescribing stimulants outside of the Ministry of Health rules but he continued to do so until 2019.
According to the tribunal’s website, Hanne has appealed to the High Court against the penalty decision in particular, the orders for suspension, fine and costs.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.