Medical Board of Australia v Piesse [2022] VCAT 82 (on Austlii).
Dr Piesse was found to have engaged in professional misconduct under (a) and (c) of the definition of that term in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Victoria) Act 2009 (National Law) in relation to each of the five allegations brought against him.
The first of the five allegations, to which the others related, was that from January to August 2017, Dr Piesse created and signed 149 false immunisation exemption certificates for unvaccinated children, when he knew they did not satisfy the statutory criteria for exemption from the ‘no jab, no play’ law. This enabled those children to be enrolled in early childhood services such as kindergartens and child-care centres. It was also alleged that Dr Piesse ‘misused his status as a medical practitioner by providing information to the public and/or other medical practitioners about methods and/or means of engaging in similar conduct.
This conduct occurred despite a letter to the doctor from the Deputy Chief Health Officer conveying concerns (later borne out) that Dr Piesse was issuing numerous vaccination exemption certificates for children, where there was no proper basis for this.
Further, Dr Piesse was alleged to have failed to co-operate with legitimate enquiries into his treatment of patients and/or his conduct, by refusing to respond to requests to provide clinical records and/or by attempting to undermine AHPRA’s ability to access relevant information and/or failing to cooperate with the Board’s investigation/s.
All five allegations were found proven to the requisite standard. The Tribunal imposed a reprimand, disqualification for 6 years, a prohibition on provision of health services and a prohibition on using the title ‘doctor’.
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