Health Ombudsman v NPT

QUEENSLAND CIVIL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

CITATION:

Health Ombudsman v NPT [2020] QCAT 267

PARTIES:

DIRECTOR OF PROCEEDINGS ON BEHALF OF THE HEALTH OMBUDSMAN

(applicant)

v

NPT

(respondent)

APPLICATION NO/S:

OCR244-19

MATTER TYPE:

Occupational regulation matters

DELIVERED ON:

29 July 2020

HEARING DATE:

On the papers

HEARD AT:

Brisbane

DECISION OF:

Judicial Member D J McGill SC,

Assisted by:

Ms M Barnett,
Ms L Dyer

Professor M Lupton. 

ORDERS:

1.   The Tribunal decides that the respondent behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct. 

2.   The Tribunal reprimands the respondent.

3.   The respondent is disqualified from applying for registration as a registered health practitioner for six months from the date of this order. 

4.   The parties bear their own costs of the proceeding.

CATCHWORDS:

PROFESSIONS AND TRADES – HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS – NURSES – DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS – Professional misconduct – stealing drugs from employer – criminal convictions – registration not renewed - sanction

Health Ombudsman Act 2013 s 104, s 107

Health Ombudsman v CSM [2020] QCAT 55
Health Ombudsman v Jamieson [2017] QCAT 172
Health Ombudsman v Macdonald [2016] QCAT 473
Health Ombudsman v McGill [2019] QCAT 399
Health Ombudsman v Mullins [2019] QCAT 339
Health Ombudsman v Tu [2020] QCAT 91
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia v Mahon [2014] VCAT 403

REPRESENTATION:
Applicant:	Office of the Health Ombudsman
Respondent:	Self-represented
APPEARANCES:	This matter was heard and determined on the papers pursuant to s 32 of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 (Qld)

REASONS FOR DECISION

1. This is a reference by the applicant of disciplinary proceedings against the respondent under the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 s 103(1)(a), s 104. In accordance with that Act, I am sitting with assessors Ms Barnett, Ms Dyer and Professor Lupton.[1] The respondent was a registered health practitioner for the purposes of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Qld), being a registered nurse. The applicant alleges that the respondent engaged in professional misconduct, in that he has been convicted of offences involving theft of drugs from his workplace.

   [1]Health Ombudsman Act 2013 s 126; see s 127 for their function.

2. The respondent has not been legally represented in these proceedings, and indeed has not engaged with the proceedings after filing a response, although he advised the applicant by email that he did not dispute anything, and accepted whatever the Tribunal decided.[2] The applicant has provided the Tribunal with evidence by affidavit, and has provided written submissions to the Tribunal. The hearing proceeded on the papers, in accordance with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009, s 32.

   [2]See emails from the respondent exhibited to the affidavit of Bowman filed 12 December 2019. 

Facts

1. The Tribunal finds the following facts on the basis of the material placed before it by the applicant.  The respondent was born in 1979 and is now 40.  He was first registered as a registered nurse in 2015, having been previously registered as an enrolled nurse from 2011. At the relevant time, the respondent was working as…