Censured doctor now identified
A former Ka¯piti doctor found to have conducted unjustified clinical breast examinations has lost the fight to keep his name secret.
Doctor Ran Ben-Dom, still practising in the region, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) in November last year, but can only be named now due to an appeal.
The ruling related to complaints from 2011 to 2017 regarding multiple women who said he suggested and did breast examinations though they were there for unrelated health queries. He also failed to record several examinations, asked a woman if she knew she was very attractive and commented “for your age, they’re [breasts] quite full” or words to that effect.
At the time eight women spoke of the behaviour, which continued despite the doctor telling supervisors he would “utterly avoid” raising the topic of breast-cancer prevention.
He had appealed the decision and penalties, and kept working in the lower North Island with his name secret. Penalties include a fine of $5000, the need for a chaperone if breasts are examined, at his cost, and $160,000 in costs.
Judge Robert Dobson upheld the tribunal’s decision and dismissed the doctor’s name-suppression appeal. Lawyer Donald Stevens sought permanent suppression because one of the man’s relatives was in medicine and lifting it would affect the person’s reputation. But the judge dismissed this.
All but two small details in the appeal were dismissed — Judge Dobson said these could not impact the “correctness” of the remainder of the tribunal’s findings and penalties. He said the tribunal erred in requiring the man to have a chaperone, with the cost on Ben-Dom.
“[The appellant] is to have a female chaperone present when seeing female patients for any breast examination and that chaperone must be a registered health professional, the cost of such service being a matter between the appellant and his then employer, but in no circumstances being a charge on MCNZ.”
The conditions imposed will remain in place until April 2023.
The judge also reversed the finding that the doctor should be sanctioned for failing to appreciate the premises were empty and dark at the end of a consultation.
Ben-Dom, from Israel, came to New Zealand in 2009.