Medical practitioner suspended for inadequate patient care and record-keeping

11 Oct 2024

A Victorian general practitioner has received a reprimand and a three-month suspension for failing to adequately treat a patient addicted to sleeping tablets and failing to maintain appropriately detailed medical records.

The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) referred Dr Michael Kozminsky to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the tribunal) following a complaint about his treatment of one of his patients.

For nearly two years, Dr Kozminsky had been treating the patient for insomnia and had prescribed a medicine with well-known side effects and a risk of addiction. During that time, on two separate occasions, the patient’s husband had called expressing concerns that his wife was addicted to the sleeping tablets Dr Kozminsky was prescribing.

While the calls were noted in the patient’s records, along with information about the mental health stressors in her life and her cardiac history, the patient’s records revealed Dr Kozminsky had failed to record whether there was therapeutic need for the sleeping tablets at the dosage he was prescribing or the possibility the patient had an underlying mental health issue which would need a different treatment approach.

Given the patient’s heart issues, he also failed to record whether there were any medical contraindications to taking the sleeping tablets nor whether he provided appropriate counselling or advice about their risks and side effects.

Dr Kozminsky also failed to take adequate steps to manage the risks of the sleeping tablets’ addictive nature. He had not made a treatment plan which took into this account, he prescribed them for longer than the recommended period, and despite being aware of his patient seeing other medical practitioners, Dr Kozminsky increased the dose of sleeping tablets before confirming with the other doctors whether they were still prescribing them. After 17 months of prescribing, the only step he took to help reduce his patient’s reliance on sleeping tablets was to enforce daily dosing.

The Board argued that Dr Kozminsky had failed to follow the standards and recommendations set out in the relevant guidelines and he had put his patient’s safety at risk with his approach to her treatment. The Board submitted his behaviour breached the Code of Conduct and represented a ‘serious departure from the expected standards of the profession.’

The tribunal reprimanded Dr Kozminsky, ordered that his registration be suspended for three months, and imposed conditions on his registration. He was required to successfully complete Board-approved education of at least 10 hours and a reflective practice report on appropriate prescribing of drugs and maintaining adequate medical records. He also had to undergo an audit of his practice.

Read the tribunal’s full decision on AustLii.