By Stuart Eustice, Partner and Zoe Vlahogiannis, Lawyer

Nursing & Midwifery Board of Australia v Wojciechowski (Review and Regulation) [2025] VCAT 932 (27 October 2025)

A midwife has been reprimanded and disqualified from applying for registration for a period of eight months after her actions were found to constitute professional misconduct.

The Tribunal concluded that the midwife stole Endone intended for a patient; caused another midwife to attempt to administer incorrect medication to a patient; and inhaled nitrous oxide and was under the influence of same whilst practicing as a midwife and on a break from her shift as a midwife.

In coming to their determination and orders, the Tribunal considered the serious nature of stealing medication in circumstances where nurses and midwifes are the ‘gatekeepers for access to restricted medications’, the dishonesty involved in the conduct, the abuse of the midwifes position of trust, and that her conduct put patients at risk.

Medical Board of Australia v Andric (Review and Regulation) [2025] VCAT 875 (3 October 2025)

The Tribunal determined that a doctor engaged in professional misconduct as he prescribed medications in the name of his wife over a 2-year period for both his wife’s benefit and for self-administration.

The Tribunal found that it was inappropriate for the doctor to prescribe medication to his wife given their close personal relationship; that no management plan for his wife was created and that there were no records to substantiate or support the clinical justification for prescribing the medication. The doctor was also not authorised to self-administer Schedule 4 and Schedule 8 medications.

As a result, the Tribunal reprimanded the doctor and suspended him from practice for 6 months and imposed conditions on his registration for 12 months which included drug screening.

Medical Board of Australia v Ameen (Review and Regulation) (Corrected) [2025] VCAT 831 (2 October 2025)

The Tribunal characterised a doctors conduct as being professional misconduct as he:

• breached professional boundaries by providing ongoing medical care to a patient between November 2016 and August 2018, while he was in a personal, intimate, and sexual relationship with the patient as well as failing to keep adequate clinical records of the medical care;
• breached professional boundaries by providing medical care to four people with whom he was in a close personal or familial relationship between August 2016 and January 2018 and failed to provide adequate, appropriate and competent clinical care to these patients and keep adequate records; and
• failed to maintain patient confidentiality by disclosing a photograph of a paediatric patient without consent.

The doctor admitted the allegations and agreed with the Board that he should be reprimanded, his registration suspended for a period, and conditions imposed on his registration requiring education, mentoring, and auditing of clinical records.

The issue in dispute was the length of the suspension, with the Board submitting 12 months and the doctor seeking no longer than six months.

The Tribunal agreed with the Board and made an order to suspend the doctor for 12 months on the basis that it was necessary in the interests of specific and general deterrence and that a significant period of suspension was required ‘to underline to the profession and the public that such serious misconduct attracts serious consequences’.