A DOCTOR who was allegedly providing a “bizarre” and “adventurous” form of treatment at a Dublin clinic has been found guilty of poor professional performance and professional misconduct by a Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry.
The three-person inquiry team yesterday recommended Dr Lina Macaitiene be censured and have conditions attached to her registration for two years.
Under these she must adhere to a professional development plan approved by the Medical Council.
They also recommended she make her prescription records in relation to psychoactive medicines at her surgery on Dublin’s North Circular Road available for inspection if required by the Medical Council.
The clinic run by Dr Macaitiene, who put on her hat and coat and walked out of the inquiry on Monday as the case against her began, is called Irish Baltic Health Bridge Ltd.
It was alleged the Lithuanian doctor put fellow Lithuanian national Ina Miksiene on a drip after she claimed to be weak and in general bad health on January 26th last year.
The patient – who was in the doctor’s surgery for several hours that day – was given an infusion of minerals and vitamins, as well as a sedative by infusion and an iron injection.
The patient told the inquiry she felt weak after the infusion and the doctor advised her to get some fresh air.
She said she collapsed on the way home and had to be taken by ambulance to the Mater hospital a day or two later. When she told the doctor what happened the doctor responded that nobody had died.
The fitness to practise committee found Dr Macaitiene had failed to make an adequate diagnosis which constituted professional misconduct.
The chairman of the committee Prof Gerry Bury said this led to a significant delay for the patient in getting her medical problems sorted.
She suffered from anaemia and received a blood transfusion in hospital.
The doctor was also found guilty of professional misconduct for administering a range of inappropriate medications, and guilty of poor professional performance for failing to respond adequately when the patient was feeling dizzy and unwell after the treatment.
In addition she was found guilty of poor performance for failing to take an adequate history from the patient on January 10th and for denying to a doctor at the Mater hospital on January 28th that she had prescribed aspirin for Ms Miksiene.
Dr Macaitiene was also found guilty for getting security to remove the patient from her surgery on January 31st when she returned looking for a sick cert and to complain about the treatment she had received; and for failing to keep adequate medical records. Prof Bury said the inadequacy of the records “could have led to significant patient harm”.
In closing submissions JP McDowell, for the Medical Council, said the records kept by the doctor in relation to her care of this patient were “self serving” in several respects.
They mentioned a doctor in Lithuania prescribing aspirin for the patient, but not herself; they also referred to the patient being drunk but there was no evidence of the patient having an alcohol problem from tests carried out at the Mater.
In addition the records mentioned the patient felt better after the IV infusions when the patient said in evidence she felt worse and collapsed on the way home; they also suggested the patient refused to go to hospital, something denied by the patient.
Simon Mills, counsel for the doctor, submitted there were many things the patient, when cross-examined, could not recall from January 2009 and this had to be borne in mind by the committee when considering her reliability as a witness.
Furthermore, he said the committee should bear in mind his client came from a country where community medicine may on occasion be more interventionist, though no evidence about this had been given.