{"id":1011081,"date":"2026-06-07T11:19:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1011081\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:19:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:19:32","slug":"doctors-drug-prescribing-had-direct-role-in-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1011081\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor’s drug prescribing had ‘direct role’ in deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former medical practitioner who was the subject of multiple red flags played a direct role in the deaths of two patients through grossly irresponsible drug prescribing, a coroner has found.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Brown, Matthew Winwood, Toni Wiki and Belinda Kemp, who were all drug dependent, died in Tasmania between September 2016 and August 2017.<\/p>\n

They were being treated by David Jackson, who prescribed them methadone and benzodiazepines as part of opioid replacement therapy.<\/p>\n

Mr Brown, 35, died of combined methadone and benzodiazepine intoxication and Mr Winwood, 47, died of mixed prescription drug toxicity involving methadone and multiple sedatives.<\/p>\n

Coroner Olivia McTaggart found Dr Jackson put Mr Brown, a lifelong drug user, in danger by prescribing methadone on three occasions without verifying his recent prison prescriptions.<\/p>\n

\"Hobart<\/p>\n

Coroner Olivia McTaggart found Dr David Jackson’s prescribing to be “grossly irresponsible”. (Linda Higginson\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Dr Jackson provided “effectively an unlimited supply for a drug binge” to Mr Winwood, who was clearly not stable and despite warnings from his mother, Ms McTaggart said.<\/p>\n

“He may have died by drug overdose eventually, such was his high risk, but that is not to the point,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He was deprived of a chance to live at that time.”<\/p>\n

Dr Jackson had a “dangerous manner of treatment and prescribing” in respect of Mr Brown, Mr Winwood, Ms Wiki and Ms Kemp.<\/p>\n

“The actions of Dr Jackson, by his grossly irresponsible prescribing, played a direct causative role in the deaths of Mr Brown and Mr Winwood,” Ms McTaggart said.<\/p>\n

“He did not play a direct role in the deaths of Ms Wiki or Ms Kemp.”<\/p>\n

Dr Jackson, who worked in Tasmania from 1986 to 2018, was the subject of a large-scale criminal investigation as a result of the deaths but wasn’t charged.<\/p>\n

Tasmania’s Director of Public Prosecutions in 2021 determined evidence could not sustain convictions for manslaughter, even if Dr Jackson’s prescribing was dangerous or negligent or contrary to appropriate clinical guidelines.<\/p>\n

In 1992, Dr Jackson came to the attention of senior health staff at a Hobart hospital who had significant concerns about his prescribing of excessive opioids to patients, Ms McTaggart said.<\/p>\n

In 1995, he again came to the attention of the chief pharmacist relating to excessive prescribing of methadone.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lifelong drug user Nicholas Brown was given methadone without verifying his prison prescriptions. (Jono Searle\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

In 2007, Dr Jackson’s prescribing practices came under scrutiny from a colleague in relation to a “known problem” with drug-addicted patients attending a health centre where they both worked.<\/p>\n

The colleague told the inquiry Dr Jackson kept limited notes in relation to treating his patients which made it hard to understand his logic behind prescribing high doses.<\/p>\n

Dr Jackson was prohibited by the national regulator from prescribing certain drugs in January 2018 after a notification from investigating police. He resigned later that month.<\/p>\n

Ms McTaggart made 10 recommendations for reform, including for Tasmania’s health department to set up a robust strategy to refer breaches by prescribers for prosecution.<\/p>\n

Ms Wiki was ruled to have died of cardiac arrest, while Ms Kemp died of pneumonia with mixed drug toxicity and other issues contributing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former medical practitioner who was the subject of multiple red flags played a direct role in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1011082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4315],"tags":[280090,280087,280092,280089,280093,280095,105,280094,280091,4326,133721,51919,280088,7395,16,15],"class_list":["post-1011081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-belinda-kemp","tag-david-jackson","tag-dr-david-jackson","tag-dr-jackson","tag-drug-dependent","tag-drug-toxicity","tag-health","tag-irresponsible-drug","tag-matthew-winwood","tag-medication","tag-methadone","tag-mr-brown","tag-nicholas-brown","tag-prescribing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116708558226754290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}