An Albury-based general surgeon has had conditions imposed on her registration to not practise medicine.
These conditions appear to have been imposed on the registration of Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt following an investigation which revealed she had performed hundreds of potentially “incomplete” colonoscopies.colo
The Guardian Australia has reported that “Close to 2,000 patients who received colonoscopies performed or supervised by Dr Schmidt were told this week they may need to have their procedures repeated to ensure they do not have cancer. A panel of experts reviewed procedures involving Schmidt at Albury Wodonga Health, Albury Wodonga private hospital and Insight private hospital from 2018 to 2022 after one of her colleagues raised concerns in July.”
The full Guardian Australia story can be access here.
The restrictions appear to have been placed on her registration pending an investigation into the allegations by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission. The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (‘HCCC”) is the NSW health regulator whose role is to investigate complaints made in relation to the conduct of healthcare practitioners in NSW. If the investigation goes further, then the HCCC can prosecute Dr Schmidt in the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal has the powers to implement permanent conditions on a doctor’s registration or even deregistration.
The development has potentially disastrous implications for patients, especially while they wait for the results of any further investigations.
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