A man who may be the only late-term abortion practitioner in Australia has lost his medical license for a year after he was found to be inappropriately prescribing addictive drugs to patients.
The Age newspaper in Australia has more information:
On Friday, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal cancelled Dr Mark Schulberg’s registration for one year from July after finding him guilty of serious misconduct.
Between 2000 and 2009, the Croydon-based doctor prescribed multiple patients with more than 25,000 Xanax tablets and 9000 Valium among other addictive drugs.
In her judgment, senior member Noreen Megay said his conduct represented the ”most serious and grave lapse” of professional standards. ”His conduct was consistent with poor practice, it endangered the patients, it continued over a number of years and we viewed the pattern of prescribing as reckless,” she wrote.
The tribunal heard Dr Schulberg was the only doctor in Victoria, and potentially Australia, who continues to perform late-term surgical abortions on women between 16 and 24 weeks gestation.
While Dr Schulberg’s lawyers urged the tribunal to maintain his registration to practice for this reason, Ms Megay rejected this and said she was concerned late-term abortions were being carried out in a day surgery clinic without a specialist anaesthetist and intensive care services nearby.
Dr Schulberg supervised disgraced anaesthetist James Latham Peters, who is serving a 14-year jail sentence for infecting 55 women with hepatitis C at the Croydon Day Surgery. He infected patients by injecting himself with pre-filled syringes of fentanyl – an opioid used in general anaesthesia – and then administering the remaining drug to the patients.
Schulberg, the owner of the abortion business, has had problems in the past.
A woman died from an abortion at his abortion business in December 2011.
Schulberg “was in 2009 found guilty of unprofessional conduct for failing to gain legal consent to perform a late-term abortion on an intellectually disabled woman,” it was reported. “And earlier this year it was revealed that a 40-year-old woman was left fighting for her life in the Box Hill Hospital after Dr Schulberg performed a late-term abortion surgery on her. He is still being investigated by the practitioners’ board after 40-year-old mother Pheap Sem was rushed to hospital in August in a critical condition after a late-term abortion.”
“In 2008 he was found guilty of professional misconduct by the board for failing to gain legal consent for the 25-week abortion of an intellectually disabled woman raped by her father,” the paper continued. “A year later he was found guilty of inappropriately prescribing painkillers.”
