A doctor has been accused of giving medication to an underage patient without seeking the permission of the parent or identifying what the medication was for, a fitness-to-practise committee has heard.
The same doctor was also alleged to have failed to adequately refer another patient for an assessment of breast lumps through the national breast referral service, but arranged an ultrasound.
A Medical Council fitness-to-practise inquiry on Tuesday heard allegations of professional misconduct and poor performance against the locum doctor who was working at a medical centre in the midwest in 2019.
Dr Theodora Christova, a Greek national who qualified in Bulgaria, did not attend the inquiry.
READ MORE
She was recruited via a locum agency to work at the Shannon Medical Centre from October 14th to 18th that year as cover for Dr Yvonne Williams, a principal doctor at the centre who was going on annual leave.
The allegations against Dr Christova include that on October 15th she diagnosed a female minor, referred to on Tuesday as patient A, as having an eye infection without properly examining her eye and she also refused to carry out an asthma review and to administer a flu injection for which the consultation had been booked.
While seeing another female minor, referred to as patient B, Dr Christova was accused of taking a tablet from her personal bag and handing it, or a part of it, to the patient to take without asking her mother, who was also present during the consultation. She also failed to identify the medication in the tablet, the committee heard.
It was also alleged that Dr Christova failed to adequately explain the purpose of the tablet to the patient or her mother.
On October 17th, she saw a male minor patient who had had a coughing episode the previous night. It was alleged Dr Christova inappropriately advised the patient’s father that his son’s asthma inhalers should not be administered while he was taking antibiotics she prescribed.
It was also alleged Dr Christova failed to adequately refer another patient for an assessment of breast lumps through the national breast referral service. The inquiry heard she ordered an ultrasound for this patient with MD Ultrasound, a private provider in Limerick.
Because of concerns about the registrant’s performance, Dr Williams, who made the complaint against Dr Christova, had to return from her annual leave. Dr Christova was asked via the locum agency not to attend the centre on October 18th.
Dr Mary Davin-Power, a medical member of the committee, asked Dr Williams if she thought there was a language difficulty regarding Dr Christova.
Dr Williams said although she did not have an in-depth conversation with Dr Christova when she started at the practice, the locum doctor was able to converse about her accommodation and that things were okay.
However, Dr Williams said there were some complaints from patients that Dr Christova did not have enough English but that this was not included in her complaint to the council.
The committee decided that every conceivable effort had been made to serve documentation on Dr Christova, which also included advice to her regarding the consequences of not attending the inquiry and that there was no reason for the inquiry not to proceed.
As some of the allegations against Dr Christova involve patients who were minors at the time, the committee directed that their identities and that of their parents who were called as witnesses on Tuesday be anonymised. The identity of the other patients were also anonymised.
The inquiry continues on Wednesday.
