Urologist barred from practising in Australia

> Maal Hijrah award winner guilty of making false claims

PETALING JAYA: A urologist who was given the Penang Malays Association Maal Hijrah award last month, has been disqualified from practising in Australia.

According to reports in online news portal Malaysian Talk, this was after the doctor was found to have doctored patients’ records to falsify overtime claims while on fellowship attachment in Perth between 2015 and 2016.

Datuk Dr Azhar Amir Hamzah ( pix), who was on an international fellowship programme when he committed the professional misconduct, is now back in the Universiti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian Hospital in Kelantan.

The State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia (SAT) found that Azhar falsified patient records four times and on 12 occasions claimed overtime he did not work while attached to the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, Australia.

He also allegedly made 61 false recall claims and in total received A$7,093 (RM23,500) he was not entitled to.

The SAT has since ordered Azhar to be disqualified from applying to be registered as a medical practitioner in Australia for two and a half years.

Reports in Perth-based news agency Perthnow.com.au said he was also ordered to pay A$11,500 (RM38,000) as costs for the proceedings.

Azhar has returned the claims money to the South Metropolitan Health Service and has expressed remorse over his actions.

It is not known if the Penang Malays Association was aware of Azhar’s misconduct in Australia before nominating him as this year’s Maal Hijrah award recipient in the field of medicine.

The awards were held last month in Penang and during his interview with the media, he spoke about his experience of being the personal physician for the former Kelantan mentri besar Datuk Abdul Nik Aziz Nik Mat and what it was like taking care of him during the last stages of his life.