Australia, June 7 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on May 6:

1. Mahyar Amjadi (the Practitioner) filed an ancillary application in the Tribunal on 7 May 2025 which seeks orders to vary, by consent, two conditions which were embodied in order 2 made by the Tribunal on 24 April 2025 (the 24 April 2025 Decision). In the hearing conducted on 7 May 2024, the Health Care Complaints Commission (the Commission) consented to the orders being made, as varied slightly during the oral submission made by the Practitioner.

2. Pursuant to s 165B(5A) of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) (National Law), an ancillary matter can be determined by the presider:

165B Constitution of Tribunal for complaints, applications and appeals [NSW]

(2) Except as provided by subsections (4), (5) and (5A), the Tribunal, when conducting an inquiry or hearing an appeal under this Law, is to be constituted by-

(a) 1 Division member who is an Australian lawyer of at least 7 years' standing or, in the case of medical practitioner proceedings, 1 Division member who is a senior judicial officer; and

(5A) The Tribunal, when constituted to make an ancillary decision or an interlocutory decision within the meaning of the Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013, is to be constituted by the Tribunal List Manager or the member referred to in subsection (2) (a).

3. The Tribunal marked the following documents as exhibits in the hearing:

a) Exhibit A1: Application to Vary the Tribunal Decision.

b) Exhibit A2: Affidavit by the Practitioner's solicitor Ms Melanie Nicol affirmed 7 May 2025.

c) Exhibit A3: Minute of proposed order as sought by the Practitioner.

d) Exhibit X1: Copy of the Evidentiary Certificate tendered in the Stage One hearing and setting out the conditions imposed by the Medical Council of NSW (Medical Council) on the registration of the Practitioner on 2 August 2022 and current until the making of the order by the Tribunal on 24 April 2025.

e) Copy of the 24 April 2025 Decision of the Tribunal in this proceeding.

f) Copy of email forwarded to the Tribunal by the Practitioner's solicitor requesting an urgent listing before the Tribunal.

g) Copy of email from a Tribunal Sydney Registry staff member to the parties setting out a request from the Tribunal Principal Member herein, for the filing of documents and requesting submission for the hearing of the urgently-listed application.

4. The evidence establishes that this application under consideration became necessary because of advice received by the Practitioner, from his monitoring officer (A/Senior Program Officer, Medical Council of NSW), following an email sent to the Medical Council requesting the approval of Dr Turner and Dr Safvat as principal and co-supervisors of the conditions then applicable to him consequent upon the 24 April 2025 Decision. It is noted that immediately prior to the decision being published, the Practitioner had been practicing as a specialist plastic surgeon subject to conditions imposed by the Medical Council (on 2 August 2022) and those conditions included the requirement for Category A supervision. Both Dr Turner and Dr Safvat were Council-approved supervisors for the conditions dated 2 August 2022.

5. On 30 April 2025, the Practitioner's solicitor wrote to the Medical Council with a request that the Medical Council confirm that the group practice condition only applies to the practice of Plastic Surgery as defined as "body contouring procedures" in the conditions imposed in order 2 of the 24 April 2025 Decision. The Practitioner had been given Medical Council approval for practice at two skin cancer clinics where he does not conduct any body contouring surgery in the 2 August 2022 conditions.

6. The Medical Council replied to the email from the Practitioner's solicitor on 2 May 2025 advising, inter alia, that until a new approval by the Medical Council of the Practitioner's proposed supervisors is notified by the Medical Council, he is unable to practice. Further information from the Medical Council was to the effect that the approval of the Practitioner's supervisors may take 5 to 10 business days after all requested information and documents, required from the Practitioner, have been received by the Medical Council. There were other circumstances set out which may cause further delay.

7. The advice from the Medical Council to the Practitioner's solicitor led to further correspondence between the Practitioner's solicitor and both the Medical Council and the Commission in an attempt to close the period of time between the order of 24 April 2025 and the approval by the Medical Council of the Practitioner's proposed supervisors. That correspondence included advice that the Practitioner would apply to the Tribunal to vary order 2 of the 24 April 2025 Decision so that the conditions would only become effective at the expiration of eight weeks, and that pending that eight-week period he would continue to practise subject to the conditions imposed by the Medical Council on 2 August 2022. It was envisaged that during the eight-week period the Practitioner would place before the Medical Council all of the necessary documents and consents in order to have his existing Council-approved supervisors again approved for the conditions imposed by the order of 24 April 2025.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/196a98137bb2e4e23f92a020)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.