Hawke’s Bay Doctor Struck Off Medical Register

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31770, 29 August 1968, Page 20

Hawke’s Bay Doctor Struck Off Medical Register

(New Zealand Press Association)

NAPIER, August 28.

A former assistant medical superintendent of the Waipawa Hospital Board, Arthur George Bell, was today struck off the Medical Register having previously been found guilty of unlawfully using an instrument on a girl with intent to procure a miscarriage.

Bell was sentenced by Mr Justice Macarthur to two years’ gaol, after his trial in the Supreme Court at Napier in March.

Mr G. E. Bisson, the Crown Prosecutor, today presented before Mr Justice Roper a notice of motion for the removal of Bell’s name from the Medical Register on behalf of the New Zealand Medical Council.

Mr L. V. Stubbs, for Bell, asked for the motion to be heard in chambers. But his Honour said he could not accede to this. “I have had experience of two similar cases myself,” he said. Mr Bisson said the application was supported by an affidavit signed by Dr J. O. Mercer, of Wellington, the chairman of the Medical Council. The council, he said, had made a full inquiry into Beil’s case.

Mr Bisson said that at the preliminary hearing of the matter by the Medical Council, a petition signed by about 1600 residents of central Hawke’s Bay had respectfully asked that Bell be reinstated in the medical profession.

His Honour said he could

see no reason why Bell should be treated any differently from others in the profession who had acted similarly, particularly because the application was backed by the Medical Council.

‘ I therefore make an order for Bell to be struck off the Medical Register of the New Zealand Medical Council,” he said. His Honour said that he did feel, however, that he should consider the high regard in which Bell was held by the central Hawke’s Bay community. Upholding a submission of Mr Stubbs, his Honour said he would take the unusual course of setting a time when Bell could make an application for re-instate-ment.

“I therefore order that Bell may apply for re-instatement three years from the date he was sentenced, March 13, 1968,” his Honour said. “1 consider that this is the absolute minimum period for this case. What will happen after that is the responsibility of the Medical Council.”