Former eye surgeon, Dr Philip Macdonald, was sentenced in the Napier District Court last week for continuing to practise after he voluntarily deregistered from the New Zealand Medical Council. He was found guilty of 19 charges filed under Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act following a trial in December last year.
Dr Macdonald has been fined $21,500 and ordered to pay $2000 in costs.
During the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Macdonald chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and voluntarily deregistered from the Medical Council in January 2022. He claimed to register instead under an alternative Māori Health Council, the Wakaminenga Health Council (WHC) which is not a legally recognised regulatory body. Dr Macdonald then continued to practise medicine until July 2022, despite being repeatedly advised by both the Ministry and the Medical Council that he could not lawfully continue to practise.
The Ministry’s Chief Legal Advisor, Phil Knipe, says the sentence highlights the importance of the Medical Council’s role under the HPCA Act and of health practitioner registration.
“The judgment confirms that the Medical Council is the only appropriate authority to register health practitioners in the practice of medicine in New Zealand. Further, as Judge Earwaker says, the Medical Council is not there simply to issue practising certificates. Its role is much wider. Its functions are critical to public safety, trust and confidence in the health system,” Phil Knipe says.
“In issuing a practising certificate, the Medical Council is essentially providing assurance to the public that the recipient doctor is competent and fit to practise. It is therefore critical, both for public safety and to ensure public trust and confidence, that members of the public can easily identify whether a doctor is registered or not and if they hold a current practising certificate. The Medical Council meets that need by providing a publicly available medical register. In contrast, none of Dr MacDonald’s later patients were aware of his unregistered status at the time that they saw him.”
“The Ministry initially took an educational approach to advising Dr Macdonald of his obligations under the HPCA Act, however the Ministry will prosecute where it identifies serious offending under the HPCA Act to uphold the integrity of the system.”
“Being vaccinated protects frontline workers like healthcare professionals, as well as the patients they support. Just as Dr MacDonald’s patients were not informed of his unregistered status, Dr Macdonald did not inform his patients that he was not vaccinated. As such, he did not allow them to make an informed decision about their health.”
The Ministry notes Judge Earwaker’s comments that Dr Macdonald chose to ignore significant red flags and embrace an alternative registration with the WHC to the point of wilful blindness. Judge Earwaker also noted that Dr Macdonald could have, as others in the profession did who shared the same belief system, not practiced until the restrictions were lifted.