Australia, Sept. 1 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on July 31:

1. This matter concerns an application by the Health Care Complaints Commission (the Commission) under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) (the National Law) for disciplinary findings and orders with respect to the Commission's complaint (the Complaint) against Adam Michael Liszt, a registered nurse (the practitioner).

2. Under the heading "Background", our description of events leading to the application before this Tribunal demonstrates that the case has, to say the least, a chequered history. Indeed, in written submissions, the practitioner used the word "kafkaesque" to generally describe the matter. Whilst the use of that term may be considered to be extreme, it would be fair to describe the matter as labyrinthine. The intricacy of a number of the practitioner's submissions adds to the complexity of the arguments to be considered. This overview seeks to describe the broad context in which events occurred, and is necessarily long and detailed.

3. The Commission determined to prosecute the Complaint pursuant to s 90B(1) of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993 (NSW) (the HCC Act), alleging that:

1) the practitioner is guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct within the meaning of s 139B(1)(c) of the National Law (contravention by the practitioner of a condition to which the practitioner's registration is subject) (Complaint One); and

2) the practitioner is guilty of professional misconduct within the meaning of s 139E of the National Law (Complaint Two).

4. There are a number of matters to be considered in the history of this case that culminated in the application for disciplinary findings and orders. However, we note as a matter of some importance that the matters initially notified anonymously to the Commission about the practitioner are not the matters which were ultimately investigated and which became the subject of the Complaint being prosecuted.

5. The practitioner was working as a mental health nurse on a casual basis in 2019 with the Sydney Local Health District (SLHD), and had worked irregular shifts for around 20 years. In April 2020, an anonymous complaint was made to the Commission regarding the practitioner's attendance at a Violence Prevention & Management (VPM) Training Course in April 2019 and August 2019. The anonymous complaint alleged that the practitioner had been "dismissed" because of "misconduct relating to violence prevention and management" and that the administration of the hospital where he had been working thought the practitioner was "a danger to himself and others". Those allegations, and others made in the complaint, are not matters on which the Tribunal is required to make findings.

6. After consulting with the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW (the Council), the Commission referred the anonymous complaint to the Council to manage. In the circumstances, the Council was considered to be the most appropriate body to manage the matter.

7. The Council provided a copy of the anonymous complaint to the practitioner on 21 July 2020 and asked him to provide information relevant to the matters notified in the complaint, by 4 August 2020. The practitioner failed to provide all the requested information by the due date, which led to the Council deciding to conduct a performance interview on 15 October 2020 to discuss the issues raised in the complaint.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/198532ab00a26fa8c429fde0)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.