The doctor, whose identity is secret because of an interim suppression order, is back in Dunedin this week for a hearing of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT).
The doctor is charged with writing a prescription for himself for tramadol and two other drugs, altering a second prescription to add tramadol alongside a prescribed drug, and then presenting that prescription to a pharmacist to be filled.
The doctor accepts some details of the charges, but several matters remain in dispute.
The pharmacist who received the first prescription dispensed the two other drugs but did not dispense the tramadol.
The second pharmacist also had doubts about the prescription she was presented, concerns which sparked the investigation which eventually resulted in the HPDT hearing.
Opening for the prosecuting body the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC), Samantha Ward said the doctor’s conduct amounted to malpractice or negligence and could bring the profession into disrepute.
The Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice publication said doctors could only prescribe drugs for themselves or for someone with whom they had a close personal relationship in exceptional circumstances, she said.
Council policy was also that medical professionals should not prescribe themselves drugs with a risk of addiction or misuse, such as tramadol.
The doctor’s lawyer, Matthew McClelland QC, highlighted a recent injury that the doctor had suffered.
He also questioned PCC convener Dr Fiona Ruiz about the thoroughness and fairness of its investigation, and asked whether it should have examined CCTV footage of the doctor’s second attempt to fill a prescription and should have interviewed a pharmacy assistant who witnessed the attempted transaction.
