Surgeon appeals $5000 fine
A surgeon who suggested honey for a tongue lump that turned out to be cancer, has appealed against a $5000 fine imposed as part of a professional disciplinary penalty.
Oral and maxillofacial surgeon Peter Liston was censured, fined $5000 and ordered to pay $21,000 costs in a Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision in December 2017.
At the High Court in Wellington on Monday he appealed against the fine, with lawyer Harry Waalkens, QC, saying no fine should have been imposed.
Liston’s patient, Keith Hindson, had a cancerous tongue lesion and Liston did not properly read the biopsy results.
Hindson had gone to Liston complaining of a sore tongue and was under his care for two years. A cancerous lump was not completely removed in early 2013 and despite 10 consultations the proper follow-up treatment was not done. The patient was told he did not have cancer.
It was recommended that he use manuka honey and his case was to be reviewed.
The tribunal’s decision said that at the end of 2013, Liston directed the patient to a specialist team at Palmerston North Hospital where he was told he had cancer and underwent surgery early in 2014. He has also needed further treatment.
Liston agreed that his treatment of the patient amounted to negligence or malpractice.
Liston lived in New Plymouth but went to Whanganui for two half-days a week. Conditions have since improved but, at the time, the circumstances were a ‘‘piranha fest’’, as one witness described it. The unit was put in a small space, where it was understaffed and overworked.
The tribunal recommended the board lift the support around Liston as there were serious concerns about the environment he worked in at Whanganui, said Waalkens. Liston had misdiagnosed the patient in Whanganui, and had something akin to a mental block in the way the patient was managed.
In the professional disciplinary hearing, a fine was only imposed where it was necessary to protect health and safety.But Lisa Preston, appearing for the director of proceedings who charged Liston, said that in the order of penalties that could be imposed a fine was second least serious, sitting above only a costs order. The maximum fine was $30,000.
Liston had failed to read a report that had the diagnosis in a single line in capital letters, Preston said. Justice Karen Clark reserved her decision.