Health Care Complaints Commission v Sultan

The Health Care Complaints Commission (the appellant) appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against a decision of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal). The dispute concerned findings of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct against Dr Sultan (the respondent), a medical practitioner. The respondent had admitted to unsatisfactory professional conduct, but the Tribunal had not found that his conduct amounted to professional misconduct.

The central legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the Tribunal had erred in finding that professional misconduct had not been established, and whether it had failed to consider the cumulative effect of the findings of unsatisfactory professional conduct. The appellant also argued that the Tribunal's findings of fact were unreasonable, irrational, or illogical, that it failed to have regard to relevant evidence, and that it erred in failing to consider or make a finding in relation to an admitted complaint, thereby failing to apply the correct legal test for professional misconduct.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that the Tribunal had not erred in its determination. The Court held that the Tribunal was entitled to consider the admitted instances of unsatisfactory professional conduct individually and collectively, and that its conclusion that these did not reach the threshold of professional misconduct was open to it on the evidence. The Court found no error in the Tribunal’s application of the relevant legal test or in its consideration of the evidence.

Consequently, the appeal was dismissed, and the appellant was ordered to pay the respondent’s costs of the appeal.