A south Auckland doctor struck off for professional misconduct may learn before the end of the year if he can return to medicine.
Rhys Michael Cullen was deregistered by the New Zealand Health Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal for excessively prescribing a drug used to make methamphetamine.
He was also fined $15,000, ordered to pay $25,000 in costs and hand over patient records to the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
Cullen appealed the decision in the High Court in Auckland and after a two-day hearing which ended yesterday, Judge Paul Heath reserved his decision, indicating it would be available before the end of the year.
The tribunal found that in 2003 and 2004 Cullen wrote a substantial number of prescriptions for sudomyl, a pseudoephedrine-based drug and the main pre-cursor in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
The tribunal found there was no medical justification for much of the prescribing of 790 prescriptions for 46,000 tablets.
The tribunal also found Cullen guilty of writing sudomyl prescriptions in the names of people without their knowledge.
It rejected his claim the drugs were used for research and said it was satisfied Cullen was acting illegally.
If Cullen's appeal succeeded, his deregistration would no longer apply.
