Ting v Medical Board of Australia

The Tribunal was required to decide whether the Medical Board of Australia was correct to suspend the registration of the applicant, a medical practitioner, on the basis that he posed a serious risk to patients and that immediate action was necessary to protect public health and safety. The Tribunal was required to make its own assessment of the evidence, and the extent to which the applicant’s conduct posed a risk of harm to patients. The Tribunal was also required to consider whether the immediate action taken by the Board was no wider than was necessary in the circumstances.

The Tribunal found that the applicant’s mode of practice posed a risk of harm to patients, which it assessed as likely to eventuate in the future, and which could result in serious harm. The Tribunal found that there was an absence of insight into the deficiencies in the applicant’s approach, and that the applicant had been resistant to changing his ways, and had breached conditions imposed on him by the Board in an attempt to raise the standard of his performance. The Tribunal found that in these circumstances the protection of public health and safety would not be adequately achieved by the imposition of conditions, and that it was necessary, in order to protect the public adequately, for the applicant’s registration to be suspended. The Tribunal also found that the immediate action taken was no wider than was necessary in the circumstances.

The Tribunal ordered that the decision of the respondent, of 7 March 2019, to suspend the registration of the applicant, is confirmed. The Tribunal also ordered that, unless written submissions by a party seeking an order for costs are filed in the Tribunal and served within fourteen days from the date of this decision, the parties bear their own costs of the proceeding. If such submissions are filed and served, the other party may file and serve any submissions in response within fourteen days thereafter.