KEY POINTS:
A drug-addicted Gisborne doctor will be allowed to resume practising but not until he has served a 12-month suspension and paid a fine of $10,000.
Fergus Bruce Aitcheson was working at Gisborne Hospital in 2005 when nurses noticed an increase in the number of procedures for which he was prescribing the painkiller pethidine.
Dr Aitcheson has a history of pethidine abuse. He revealed his addiction in 1996 while working at Taupo Hospital and suffered a relapse that went undetected while at Gisborne Hospital in 2001.
In 2005, hospital management confronted the doctor who, after an initial denial, admitted he had been prescribing the drug to patients, then switching it for a saline solution and keeping the pethidine for himself.
Dr Aitcheson resigned in February 2006.
He began training as a general practitioner and in March 2007 began work at the Kaiti Medical Centre, Gisborne, having entered into a voluntary agreement with the Medical Council, which required him to be monitored and undergo drug testing.
An investigation into Dr Aitcheson's time at Gisborne Hospital showed he had prescribed but not administered pethidine for about 49 patients and had performed at least one unnecessary liver biopsy.
Last month, he appeared before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
Dr Aitcheson told the hearing that while his first dose of pethidine in 2005 was "opportunistic", further acquisition was calculated.
"I was aware of the size and volume of pethidine that would be drawn up [for a patient] and would do the same with a syringe of saline," he said.
"I would wait for an opportune moment and then swap the syringes very quickly."
The tribunal released its decision yesterday. "The facts set out a very serious breach of the doctor's professional obligations.
"They show he also breached the most fundamental of his professional obligations, that is, to do no harm to his patients," it said.
The tribunal noted it was a difficult case and it had struggled to agree on the penalty.
"He appears to be a deeply valued member of the GP community in Gisborne. However, by everyone's own admission, the doctor is an addict and will always remain an addict. The risk of relapse is real. This will prove to be significantly harmful to the Gisborne community."
The tribunal could have cancelled Dr Aitcheson's registration and fined him $30,000, but it said that "after much debate" it had opted for leniency.
"The doctor is worthy of one final chance of rehabilitation."
He was suspended for 12 months, forbidden to practise as a specialist and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.
He will have drug testing every two weeks at his own expense and will not be allowed access to pethidine.
- NZPA
