ACT GP kept on despite drug slips
A Canberra doctor has been allowed to continue practising, despite unsafely prescribing opioids to addicts.
In May last year, the Medical Board of Australia suspended Dr Syeda Tausif's registration to practise medicine following investigations which found she had risked patient safety by prescribing the drugs without approval to patients who were abusing the system due to addictions.
Dr Tausif admitted to professional misconduct, and the Medical Board had attempted to cancel her registration.
But the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) has now ordered that she can be registered as a health practitioner.
ACAT says Dr Tausif will be allowed to work under strict new conditions, including supervision by a senior doctor and further training.
Dr Tausif's notes will now be subjected to random audits under the ACAT ruling.
ACAT said it finding was influenced by factors such as the high rate of consultations Dr Tausif was given – up to 40 a day in many cases.
The tribunal also found that Dr Tausif was thrown in the deep end - shown the computer-based billing system and seeing patients on her very first day at the Ginninderra and Phillip medical centres, run by Primary Health Care Limited.
ACAT found that the majority of her prescribing has been appropriate