Medical practitioner suspended for inappropriate prescribing following a patient death

13 Dec 2024

A Queensland tribunal has suspended a general practitioner for inappropriate prescribing following the death of a patient.

Dr Ceasar Sarsoza Torres was working in a very busy bulk billing practice in regional Queensland, seeing around 40 patients a day. Many of his patients had multiple health issues as well as non-medical factors that complicated their treatment.

MD was one such patient, who had complex physical and mental health issues. When MD’s psychiatrist referred MD to Dr Torres’s care, the referral documentation noted that he was at ongoing risk of self-harm and suicide, and that he had been violent towards his treating clinicians. MD saw Dr Torres more than 70 times over approximately five years, during which time Dr Torres prescribed him anti-anxiety, antidepressant, anti-psychotic, weight loss, and pain medicines – all of which are scheduled, addictive medicines.

The Medical Board of Australia (the Board) received a complaint following MD’s death in February 2021. The coroner’s report found the level oxycodone in his bloodstream was a contributing factor in his death.

The Board found issues with Dr Torres’s prescribing of Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medicines, including that Dr Torres didn’t have the required permit to prescribe them. He had also failed to maintain adequate clinical records for the five years MD was his patient and MD’s assessment and management plan were inadequate.

The Board referred Dr Torres to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the tribunal), which found he had behaved in a way that constituted professional misconduct. The tribunal noted that although Dr Torres had been trying to do the best for his patients and that he had since taken steps to improve his practise, it reprimanded him, suspended him for three months and imposed 12 months of supervision.

In making its orders, the tribunal took into account that following the Board’s investigation, Dr Torres had dropped the number of patients he sees in a day from 40 to less than 30. This had given him more time with each patient as well as the time to properly complete his clinical notes for each of them.

Read the tribunal’s full decision on AustLii.