A Canberra Hospital orthopaedic surgeon who used an experimental treatment on a nine-year-old patient has lost a court fight arising from his suspension.
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Richard Hocking was suspended by the ACT Board of the Medical Board of Australia last year following a number of complaints made against him since 2011.
The suspension was stayed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal in May 2013, on the condition he not perform elective paediatric surgery.
That same month the board ordered that Dr Hocking undertake ‘‘no unsupervised elective open hip or pelvic surgery apart from routine primary adult hip replacement’’.
The ACT Supreme Court continued the stay on July 19.
Dr Hocking is still currently able to practice.
He has ongoing proceedings in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal challenging his suspension.
One complaint against Dr Hocking involved his use of a platelet injection to treat a child with malformed hips, caused by Perthes disease.
Dr Hocking decided to use the injection – involving taking out the patient’s blood, reducing it to platelets and reinjecting it – despite there being no recognised treatment or cause for Perthes disease.
That injection, as well as his treatment of an 18-month-old baby, prompted seven doctors at Sydney’s Children’s Hospital to complain to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency in March 2011.
They expressed concerns about Dr Hocking’s clinical judgment, his surgical skills, and his management practices.
A month later, Professor Paul Smith, the head of Canberra Hospital’s orthopaedic unit also notified regulators about his concerns regarding Dr Hocking.
The ACT Medical Board met to consider the complaints, and in June 2012 decided to impose conditions on Dr Hocking’s registration while the investigation continued.
It limited the types of surgery he could perform, and required he be mentored and re-trained.
A year later, they suspended Dr Hocking’s registration.
Dr Hocking fought his suspension in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, seeking review of the ACT Medical Board’s decision.
He also brought proceedings in the ACT Supreme Court seeking further relief against the board flowing from his suspension and the events leading to it.
He said he had been denied a fair hearing and alleged the decision-makers were biased against him.
The surgeon also argued the board had a history of dealing with him in ‘‘an excessive way’’, which he said was further evidence of bias against him.
Dr Hocking asked the court to declare that the ACT Medical Board had wrongfully released protected information and that the notifications his colleagues made about him did not comply with the law.
Chief Justice Helen Murrell delivered her judgment on the case in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday morning.
She dismissed the surgeon’s application, finding no evidence of bias or prejudice in the way the board handled the complaints.
The court did, however, find some procedures had not been properly followed by the board, including the failure to give proper notice to the surgeon.
But Chief Justice Murrell said that Dr Hocking did not suffer practically because of the shortcomings.
She said in court on Friday morning the surgeon had ‘‘no significant success’’ in any of the areas he had argued.
The case will come back before the court next month to consider court costs.
CORRECTION:
An earlier version of this report should have said the suspension of Dr Hocking was stayed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal in May 2013, on the condition he not perform elective paediatric surgery. The ACT Supreme Court continued the stay on July 19. Dr Hocking is still currently able to practice. He has ongoing proceedings challenging his suspension in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Canberra Times apologises for the error.