The patient had been diagnosed with a hepatoblastoma (a malignant tumour of her liver) in early August 2009. Doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital recommended chemotherapy. The patient’s parents wished her to be treated with natural therapies and were opposed to chemotherapy. On 1 September 2009, the patient and her mother left for South America. The patient died on 12 November 2009. Subsequently, the Coroner made a referral to the Medical Board of Australia.
At a consultation on 1 September 2009, the practitioner gave advice on a comparison between a CT Scan and an ultrasound. His advice was that the patient’s tumour had shrunk. He lacked the expertise and experience to give such advice. He endorsed the continuing use of natural therapies when he should have given advice that there was no scientific basis for the effectiveness of the natural therapies.
In consideration of the practitioner’s level of experience and expertise, and in view of the advice he gave to the parents and the actions he took during the consultation, as well as the advice he ought to have given and the actions he ought to have taken during the consultation, the Tribunal determined that the practitioner behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct.
On the issue of penalty, the Tribunal said the practitioner’s conduct was a very serious lapse of his professional duties. The situation could not have been more serious given that the life of a young child was at stake.
Although the practitioner fell below the standards which are to be expected of a medical practitioner, the Tribunal determined that he did not lack the qualities of character which are the necessary attributes of a person entrusted with the responsibilities of a practitioner. The findings related to an isolated and highly unusual consultation, the circumstances of which are unlikely to be faced by him again. However, the Tribunal determined that the seriousness of the practitioner’s conduct was such that, on balance, he should be suspended. The practitioner was also reprimanded and ordered to pay the Medical Board of Australia’s costs.
To read the decision in Medical Board of Australia v Alastair Marcus Nuttall [2017] WASAT 58(S) click here.
