Doctor who performed inappropriate breast exams with the name

Now a former Kāpiti Coast doctor convicted of performing unwanted and unnecessary breast exams on his patients can be named.

Ran Ben-Dom lost his appeal against a finding of professional misconduct, was fined $ 5,000 and ordered to pay costs of $ 160,000. Conditions have also been imposed on him for any subsequent practice.

Ben-Dom has fought to have his name permanently suppressed, but Judge Robert Dobson refused, finding that publication was in the best interest of the public.

A counter-appeal from the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) seeking a 12-month suspension was unsuccessful.

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The Health Professionals Court found the doctor guilty of misconduct after a nine-day hearing in 2019. Sanctions included censorship, fines and conditions on his subsequent practice, including an education course and posters in his waiting rooms and consultation to advise the patients he needed. a companion for intimate exams.

He also denied permanent removal of the name, but the doctor immediately appealed the finding, meaning that his name remained secret until the Wellington High Court decision.

One of Ben-Dom’s victims said Tuesday that she was relieved the appeal was over and was unsuccessful.

While she believed the doctor should have stopped practicing, she was ecstatic that he could now be appointed.

“In a way that’s the most important thing to me, that even if he doesn’t think he did anything wrong, at least now other people know he did it.”

Eight women testified at the hearing, accusing him of performing unnecessary and unwanted breast exams; making inappropriate comments about their appearance and not offering a companion. One of the women, a teenager, alleged that he told her to consider masturbating. The women’s complaints ranged from 2011 to 2017.

The case was presented by the PCC, an investigative body of the Medical Council.

The PCC said the doctor violated a commitment to his employers that, following a series of complaints from patients, he would “completely avoid” raising breast cancer prevention unless it was initiated by the patient. He had also hired an accompanying nurse who would always be present during a physical examination.

After his eventual dismissal in 2018, the New Zealand Medical Council imposed a condition that he not be allowed to consult women without an escort. He currently practices in the lower part of the North Island.

The doctor appealed the result, costs and conditions in Wellington Superior Court in October.

Much of his appeal depended on his use of the clinical breast exam (NDE) as a preventative measure, and on his belief that he had a duty to initiate the topic of breast health with patients.

CBE is a physical exam performed by a healthcare professional; The use of the method as a legitimate selection process is controversial, and experts spoke both in support of and in opposition to it during the November hearing.

Both the PCC and the court accepted that there was no sexual motivation in his crime. The doctor denied all the charges and said he was trying to save lives.

Ben-Dom’s attorney, Donald Stevens QC, raised more than 20 points on the appeal and the judge rejected all but two that he said did not affect the outcome.