Doctor to pay $21,000

Press, 22 June 1987, Page 1

Doctor to pay $21,000

Special correspondent A doctor found guilty of stealing painkilling drugs he had prescribed for a terminally ill cancer patient has been censured by the Medical Council and ordered to pay $21,000.

Strict conditions have been placed on his. future work and he has been banned from prescribing any controlled drugs. A council inquiry found Dr Keith Robert John Cameron, of Christchurch, guilty of disgraceful conduct on three counts. Between June 6 and July 4, 1985, Dr Cameron stole drugs, including methadone, morphine, Valium, ativan and stemetil, which he had prescribed for a cancer patient he was treating. In the same period he wrote out prescriptions for morphine

and methadone for the same patient and collected the drugs for other purposes “but in circumstances in which it was not proved that he had administered to himself the drugs concerned.” Between June and August of the same year his treatment of the same patient, who was terminally ill, was “grossly negligent.” He prescribed unnecessary quantities of narcotic drugs, pretended to administer drugs to the patient and substituted one drug for another.

The council also found Dr Cameron guilty of professional misconduct for failing to appreciate the severity of haemorrhaging that occurred in a patient in 1983.

The council ordered that Dr Cameron be censured and pay a

penalty of $lOOO, plus $20,000 towards costs of the inquiry. It imposed the following conditions on his right to practise for the next three years. He should only practise within a hospital or other institution approved by the council. He should not prescribe any controlled drugs. Any prescribing he was permitted would be restricted to patients within the approved hospital or institution. He must accept the continuing supervision of' two named doctors who would make sixmonthly reports on his progress to the council and advise of any significant change in his condition.

He must continue his involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous.