The Medical Council at that time required doctors to be vaccinated against the virus to work with patients.
This created an “ethical dilemma” for Macdonald, who researched the vaccine and said he had doubts about its safety and the adequacy of the testing regime behind it.
He did not want to take the vaccine and said he would not recommend it to his patients.
Macdonald allowed his Medical Council registration to lapse and instead registered with an unsanctioned body, the Wakaminenga Health Council (WHC), which said it was operating under tikanga or “Māori customary law”.
He mistakenly believed his WHC membership entitled him to continue providing ophthalmology services to his patients, without the need to be vaccinated.
Macdonald registered with the WHC on October 30, 2021, and his registration with the Medical Council ceased on January 25, 2022. His business, Napier Eye, closed in July 2022.
Found guilty on 19 charges
After a trial, Macdonald was found guilty of 19 charges laid by the ministry under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.
Thirteen were for claiming to be an ophthalmologist while not holding a current practising certificate. Five were for performing a “restricted activity” – an operation – while he was not a registered practitioner, and one for using a medical title.
Judge Richard Earwaker said in finding Macdonald guilty that the WHC did not hold – and had never held – any authority to register medical practitioners and the belief that the ophthalmologist could continue to practise under it was a “mistake at law”.
Macdonald’s counsel, David Jones, KC, argued at a hearing in the Napier District Court this month that his client should be discharged without conviction.
He said Macdonald had been looking for an “ethical way of practising” without being vaccinated for Covid during the pandemic.
He was “not an anti-vaxxer in that sense of the term” and was vaccinated against other diseases but had misgivings about the efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccine.
In taking his stand, “he has lost his profession, he has lost his practice, he has lost his ability to be a doctor”, Jones said.
However, Judge Earwaker convicted Macdonald and fined him $1500 for each of the charges of performing operations and $1000 for each of the other charges.
The total fines came to $21,500 and Judge Earwaker also imposed court costs of $2000.
“What aggravates this offending is that Dr Macdonald deliberately deregistered during the midst of a global pandemic which had created severe health concerns and genuine public fear,” Judge Earwaker said in his sentencing decision.
“The Government of the day, and the various authorities, were working to ensure public safety and to preserve life.
“While Dr Macdonald may have had an ethical dilemma about the effectiveness of the vaccine and the adequacy of the testing regime, it was a lawful requirement to be vaccinated if he wished to continue to practice.
“That requirement was implemented to ensure public safety,” the judge said.
Doctor was warned, fined
Judge Earwaker said that before he gave up his registration, Macdonald was warned by the Medical Council he would not be able to practise medicine if he did so. He was also repeatedly warned by the ministry, which issued infringement notices and fined him $8000 in May 2022.
“Dr Macdonald chose to ignore this advice and rely instead upon the advice of the Māori Law Society and the WHC without seemingly questioning the quality of that advice,” Judge Earwaker said.
“I found, after hearing the evidence, that Dr Macdonald chose to ignore significant red flags and embrace an alternative registration with the WHC to the point of wilful blindness.
“His purpose was to enable him to continue to practise. He could have, as others in the profession did who shared the same belief system, not practised until the restrictions were lifted.
“This would have resolved his ethical dilemma, as he would not have been required to be vaccinated, nor would he have been required to advise his patients about the vaccine,” the judge said.
“Instead, Dr Macdonald looked for a mechanism to try and circumvent the mandate requirements in order to continue to practise.”
The earlier hearing was told that Macdonald, who had practised medicine since 1993 and was registered as an opthalmologist in 2002, had now turned away from the medical profession.
At the age of 55, he is now studying information technology with the intention to specialise in artificial intelligence.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.
