Townsville Bulletin

DOCTOR DENIES CLINIC EVICTION

- DOMANII CAMERON domanii. cameron@ news. com. au

A TOWNSVILLE doctor has denied asking a Condon mother to leave his practice with her young autistic son after the boy suffered a “meltdown”.

Samantha Akee visited My Family Doctors at Kirwan for an appointmen­t yesterday with her six- year- old son Darius and her one- year- old daughter.

Ms Akee claimed she was asked to leave the practice after her son suffered the “meltdown”, due to his men- tal condition, because they were in an unfamiliar section of the surgery.

However, My Family Doctors director Dr Praveen Kumar denied the claim and said nothing like that would happen at the practice.

“There’s two sections in the surgery but he’s ( Darius) melted down because there was a change so I had raised my voice in frustratio­n with my son,” she said.

“After that, ( Dr Kumar’s) come out and told me to take him ( Darius) outside but I couldn’t.”

Ms Akee said Dr Kumar also swore at her.

“He said ‘ I don’t care, you can’t have that bulls-- t around other patients’,” she said.

“He said, ‘ We don’t have to put up with this bulls-- t from these people’. “I’m Torres Strait Islander. “I want to lodge a complaint but I don’t know how I go about doing it.”

Ms Akee said her daughter had started crying because she had yelled back at Dr Kumar.

“The ladies gave them ( children) a lollipop and apologised,” she said. Dr Kumar denied the claims. “No, nobody was kicked out,” he said. “No, she wasn’t kicked out from the practice.

“We don’t kick anyone out from my practice. Nothing like that happens at My Family Doctors.”

In August last year, the Health Ombudsman suspended Dr Kumar’s registrati­on after it was found he was an “immediate risk’’ to patients. He is alleged to have had sexual relations with two women he hired and then treated as patients.

A Queensland Civil and Administra­tive Tribunal hearing will be held in Brisbane next year.

He told a directions hearing last week he was “about bankrupt” and needed to go “back to work”.

In August, the Bulletin reported on an incident where Dr Kumar allegedly swore at another doctor at his practice in front of patients.

In March, Dr Kumar was granted bail in Townsville Magistrate­s Court after he allegedly choked a woman and threatened her with a pool cue.

 ?? Picture: EVAN MORGAN ?? AGGRIEVED: Samantha Akee, pictured with her son Darius, 6, says she was asked to leave My Family Doctors at Kirwan by the practice director Dr Praveen Kumar ( inset) following an incident yesterday.
Picture: EVAN MORGAN AGGRIEVED: Samantha Akee, pictured with her son Darius, 6, says she was asked to leave My Family Doctors at Kirwan by the practice director Dr Praveen Kumar ( inset) following an incident yesterday.
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