A Queensland chiropractor has been barred from the profession after exploiting an elderly patient of more than $180,000 in cash and gifts. <\/p>\n
The Health Ombudsman brought proceedings against Malcolm Thomas James Atkins to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal after it was revealed the 52-year-old medical practitioner had financially \u201cexploited\u201d an elderly patient for more than four years. <\/p>\n
In a decision published this week, Mr Atkins was referred to the tribunal after he breached professional boundaries by maintaining an inappropriate relationship with an elderly patient and \u201cfinancially exploited\u201d her. <\/p>\n
It was also claimed the 52-year-old failed to keep adequate records regarding his care. <\/p>\n
Their professional relationship stretched from December 7, 2015 to May 2020, where court documents state over these years, Mr Atkins socialised with the elderly woman and accepted gifts of accommodation and money from her. <\/p>\n
Over their time together, Mr Atkins was given a total of $182,000, from the woman who was 85 to 89-years-old at the time, which the tribunal said \u201cviolated professional boundaries\u201d.<\/p>\n
Court documents state Mr Atkins failed to keep decent records regarding his care for the woman, and labelled his treatment notes \u201cincomplete, insufficient, and occasionally illegible\u201d. <\/p>\n
A complaint was submitted to the ombudsman on August 23, 2021 which sparked an investigation and finally a referral to the tribunal, who had to determine whether Mr Atkins\u2019 registration was suspended or cancelled. <\/p>\n
The tribunal noted the several boundary violations littered in Mr Atkins\u2019 conduct which included the patient\u2019s vulnerability, her age, medical history, their power imbalance and the duration of their relationship. <\/p>\n
Court documents written by the tribunal also noted the 52-year-old\u2019s repeated acceptance of very large sums of money, which ranged from $7000 to $100,000, and totalled $182,000. <\/p>\n
He also repeatedly accepted extra payments and various small gifts, involved the woman in dinners and family holidays and failed to stop of his own accord. Court documents state the patient was the one who stopped their treating relationship. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe tribunal is satisfied that the respondent\u2019s exploitative conduct is inconsistent with his being a fit and proper person to hold registration in the profession,\u201d the decision stated. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe conduct is intrinsically serious and cannot be viewed as an isolated episode.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Mr Atkins\u2019 submissions, he said if he was out of practice for more than two years he would not satisfy the requirements of the registration standard and would need to be supervised. <\/p>\n
He claimed this would likely be \u201cvery difficult\u201d given the public findings made against him. <\/p>\n
The 52-year-old also wanted the tribunal to have regard to his remorse and cited his agreement to repay the woman\u2019s family $182,000. He had repaid a significant portion. <\/p>\n
It was submitted to the tribunal that Mr Atkins reformed his character, was unlikely to engage in further misconduct and was a fit and proper person who should be presumed to resume practice once his suspension was finished. <\/p>\n
They agreed due to his age, limited other qualifications and work experience along with his financial circumstances, the period out of practice would cause hardship. He also engaged a psychologist. <\/p>\n
The tribunal however noted the report from the psychologist was recent and made a substantial time after his conduct was referred to them in December 2022. <\/p>\n
Mr Atkins was found to have behaved in a way that constituted professional misconduct. He was reprimanded, had his registration cancelled and was disqualified from applying for it for 20 months. The 52-year-old was also prohibited from providing any health services until he obtained his registration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland chiropractor has been barred from the profession after exploiting an elderly patient of more than $180,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[5734,1128,87020,98738,98731,50820,98725,18,135,19419,19,17,98734,98735,462,27250,98724,91380,98726,26767,98730,98736,98728,98729,98737,98732,98733,98727],"class_list":{"0":"post-172955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-august","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-boundary-violations","12":"tag-childcare-centre","13":"tag-court-documents","14":"tag-court-documents-state","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-health-services","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-malcolm-thomas-james-atkins","21":"tag-medical-professional","22":"tag-medication","23":"tag-oceania","24":"tag-professional-boundaries","25":"tag-professional-misconduct","26":"tag-professional-relationship","27":"tag-queensland","28":"tag-queensland-civil-and-administrative-tribunal","29":"tag-registration-standard","30":"tag-sam-turner","31":"tag-smalls-gifts","32":"tag-substantial-time","33":"tag-treatment-notes","34":"tag-trusted-healthcare-professional","35":"tag-work-experience"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}