Pharmacist/GP lands three-year ban

A PHARMACIST-TURNED GP will be barred from seeking registration as a pharmacist for at least three years after being found guilty of professional misconduct.

A NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard that Dr Hany Mahmoud Abdalla first registered as a pharmacist in 2002, before registering as a medical practitioner.

He purchased a 50% stake in the Auburn Late Night Chemist in Jun 2002, becoming the sole proprietor in 2006, despite no longer working as a pharmacist in the store, which was adjacent to the NAS Advanced Medical Centre, where he worked as a GP from 2006 and Sep 2017.

The Tribunal heard that Abdalla failed to recognise and appropriately manage a conflict, or potential conflict between his position as the owner of the pharmacy and his role as a GP at the medical centre, knowing that many of his patients would present prescriptions he had issued for dispensing and employee pharmacists may have felt constrained from questioning prescriptions issued by their employer.

Tribunal papers noted that Abdalla submitted that it was “unclear what it is that the respondent failed to do or ought to have done” in order to appropriately manage the conflict.

However, the Tribunal noted that in a separate hearing responding to delegates of the Medical Council of NSW in Mar, he said he had not realised that pharmacists working in his pharmacy might find it difficult to report him to the Pharmaceutical Investigation Unit.

The proceeding involving the Medical Council found that Abdalla had inappropriately prescribed Schedule 8 medicines to 13 patients, for which he received a six-month suspension.

“I see now that because of the power imbalance this could have created difficulties for [the employees] and I am disappointed in myself for not realising this issue at the time,” he told the Tribunal.

The Health Care Complaints Commission alleged that Abdalla failed to discharge his obligations as a pharmacy owner, by not maintaining adequate awareness of the manner in which the pharmacy’s dispensing practice was being conducted by his staff.

Abdalla sold his stake in the pharmacy last year, and has entered an undertaking not to practice as a pharmacist in the future, however the Tribunal issued a three-year ban on him seeking registration “lest the respondent change his mind”.