Hair transplant surgeon loses Privy Council appeal

LONDON - A hair transplant surgeon who worked for four years without a practising certificate has lost his appeal to the Privy Council.

Miles Roger Wislang, of Auckland, had already had an application for a judicial review of the way he was treated by medical authorities quashed in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal found Wislang guilty of professional misconduct after it was discovered he failed to get a practising certificate between August 1994 and April 1998.

In November 1999, the tribunal suspended Wislang's medical registration for two months, censured him, fined him $8500 and ordered him to pay $18,301 in costs.

He was permitted to obtain a practising certificate on condition that he name a mentor to oversee him and that he restrict his work to hair transplants.

Wislang, who has not practised since, took his case unsuccessfully to the lower courts, seeking to quash some of these penalties and conditions on the new certificate.

He was granted leave to appeal to the Privy Council regarding the interim suspension of his registration by the tribunal pending hearing of a charge of professional misconduct against him; the two-month suspension order; the fine and costs award, and the imposition by the Medical Council of the oversight condition before it would issue him with a practising certificate.

However, in their ruling posted on the Privy Council website this week, the judicial committee said it agreed with the rulings of the lower courts.

While it was obvious from the large amount of paperwork submitted that Wislang felt "greatly aggrieved" by his situation, "this whole challenge has been from first to last misconceived", the committee said.

"It is regrettable that it was ever the subject of judicial review, let alone appeal ..."

The case was dismissed with Wislang ordered to pay costs.

- NZPA