A former Kāpiti doctor convicted of professional misconduct has been named

A former Kāpiti doctor found to have performed unjustified clinical breast examinations has lost the fight to keep his name a secret.

Dr. Ran Ben-Dom, who still practices in the region, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Professionals Disciplinary Tribunal (HPDT) in November last year, but can only be appointed now due to an appeal.

The ruling related to complaints filed between 2011 and 2017 regarding several women who said he suggested and performed breast exams even though they were there for unrelated health consultations.

Included in the case was the fact that the doctor did not record several breast examinations, asked a woman if she knew she was very attractive, and commented “for her age, they are [breasts] quite complete “or words along those lines.

At the time, eight women discussed the behavior, which continued despite the doctor’s promise to his supervisors that he would “completely avoid” raising the topic of breast cancer prevention.

The doctor had appealed both the Court’s decision and the penalties, and was allowed to continue working on Lower North Island under his name in secret due to the appeal.

Those penalties include a $ 5,000 fine, the need for a chaperone during future breast exams at your expense, as well as the $ 160,000 in costs you were ordered to pay.

Judge Robert Dobson confirmed the Court’s decision and dismissed the appeal of the doctor’s name suppression.

Donald Stevens, the doctor’s attorney, had argued that the permanent deletion should be granted because one of the man’s relatives was studying medicine and removing it would seriously affect the person’s reputation.

But Dobson said he did not find the reasons presented by the defense for a suppression order convincing.

“I believe that he has exaggerated the risk of material adverse consequences for his adult children in terms of his career prospects, and similarly with respect to his wife’s career.”

All but two small details of the appeal were dismissed, but Dobson said these could not affect the “correctness” of the rest of the Court’s findings and the penalties imposed.

He said the court erred in requiring the man to have a companion when treating female patients, and the cost fell on Ben-Dom.

“[The appellant] is to have a female chaperone present when caring for female patients for any breast exams and that chaperone must be a registered healthcare professional, the cost of such service is a matter between the appellant and his employer at that time, but under no circumstances circumstance must be a charge to MCNZ. “

The ruling establishes that the conditions imposed by the Court will remain in effect until April 2023.

The judge also reversed the Court’s conclusion that the doctor should be punished for not appreciating that the premises were empty and dark at the end of a consultation.

The doctor also faced a cross appeal from the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC), with the aim of having him suspended for one year.

However, this was also unsuccessful.

The PCC argued that a period of suspension was necessary to protect the public by maintaining professional standards in the medical profession.

Attorney Harriet Goodhew said during the cross-appeal, while the seriousness of her actions was evident in the Court’s decision, this was not reflected in the penalties.

The PCC said that it did not advance the situation as sexually motivated, however, it went beyond a practitioner performing unnecessary examinations on other parts of the body.

“There was a sexual component, so the PCC says that despite the lack of sexual motivation, there is still an obvious disregard for the fact that these are sexual issues. The breasts are a sexual organ.”

She said the man had a “I know what’s best for you” approach, which did not take into account the dignity of each patient.

Last year, the President of the Court, David Carden, emphasized that normally a Court would impose a suspension for this level of misconduct, however, the doctor had already spent 13 months without working.

Stevens said the doctor approached some internships for work and would have been offered it if no limiting working conditions had been imposed.

Part of the defense case, which can only be reported now that the suppression order has been lifted, focused on cultural differences.

The defense argued that the Court should have taken into account cultural differences and the fact that the doctor speaks English as a second language with a heavy accent.

Ben-Dom is from Israel and was working in medicine there before coming to New Zealand in 2009.

His wife gave evidence of the cultural differences between the life and working conditions of a general practitioner in Israel, and the culture they encountered here.

The defense had argued that it was relevant for Israelis to be direct to the point of frankness in their communications.

But this was rejected, and Dobson said he was not satisfied that the Court had erred in failing to concede to the appellant due to any inadequacy in his familiarity with English or his ability to be understood.

The PCC stated that it was clear from the evidence that Ben-Dom had not used his time off from work to reflect on his practice, and at the time it was clear that he did not understand why it was so annoying for patients.

Last year, Carden also expressed concern about the doctor’s denial of wrongdoing.

“He is still convinced that it is a good theory [self and clinician breast examinations] and he continues to insist that it should be practiced in New Zealand. “

During the appeal, Stevens argued that the doctor took a preventive approach to his practice and that the doctor was justified in improving breast health and offering to perform breast exams.

Clinical breast exams (CBE) and breast self-exams (BSE) were a focus in his argument, and the lawyer said that while there are different opinions on the effectiveness of BSE and CBE, they are not determinative one way or another.

The court took two weeks to reach the original decision last year, but more than a year for Ben-Dom’s details to be made public.