The first Papua New Guinea national to graduate from an Australian medical school has been struck off for two years after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a female patient at Parkes Hospital.
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Wilson Pakalu, 37, was working as a locum at Parkes Hospital, in the state's central west, when he committed an aggravated indecent assault on a then 27-year-old woman who had attended the emergency department on May 15, 2013.
Pakalu massaged the patient's clitoris for approximately 40 to 50 seconds when conducting a vaginal examination.
He pleaded guilty in the Local Court in September 2014, and was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence.
In a victim impact statement, the victim said: "I really don't know how to explain in words how much my life has been turned upside down.
"I made a stand so my daughters and other unsuspecting women are safe. He can't be allowed to do this again."
The Health Care Complaints Commission took Pakalu to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal alleging he was not fit to practise medicine and asked that his registration be cancelled.
His registration currently mandates he cannot consult or treat any female patient over the age of 10 without an approved female chaperone.
During a hearing, the tribunal heard Pakalu was sacked from Parkes Hospital and his name placed on a statewide employment check register.
Unable to find work in Australia, in September 2013, he found work as a doctor with International Health Medical Services working with asylum seekers in detention at Christmas Island and then Nauru.
He has worked as a surgical registrar at a hospital in PNG since May 2015 but wishes to return to Australia in 2018 to study orthopaedics.
Ultimately he wishes to work as an orthopaedic surgeon in PNG.
The tribunal heard Pakalu came to Australia on an AusAid scholarship and obtained a bachelor of medicine/bachelor of surgery degree from Melbourne University in 2006.
In doing so, he became the first PNG national to graduate as a doctor from an Australia university.
Pakalu's barrister Michael Ainsworth asked the tribunal not to cancel his registration but to impose supervision and chaperone conditions.
He urged the tribunal to consider Pakalu's "unique position as the first PNG graduate and his role-model status in PNG" as well as "the needs of the people of PNG for a well-qualified practitioner to provide medical services and ultimately orthopaedic skills to them".
The four-person panel said it accepted there is a very real need of the people of PNG for orthopaedic services and that cancelling Pakalu's registration might thwart or hinder his orthopaedic training in Australia, with the consequent adverse impact on patients in PNG.
But it found the risk of reoffending outweighed this consideration.
"There can be no doubt that the practitioner's inappropriate and opportunistic conduct was of a very serious nature. A female patient undergoing a genital examination places absolute trust and confidence in the integrity of the practitioner carrying out the examination," it said.
The tribunal ordered that his registration be cancelled and that he may not apply for review of the cancellation for two years.
"It is in many ways tragic that this practitioner who has achieved so much, and who is held out as a role model to so many young Papua New Guineans, has transgressed in this manner," it said.
"Any steps he takes to rehabilitate himself should not only facilitate the resumption of his career in Australia if that is his goal, but also to demonstrate to his fellow citizens that he is deserving of his role-model status."
The tribunal also ordered the HCCC to provide a copy of its reasons to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency for its consideration of notification of the Papua New Guinea authorities.
