A doctor increased the dosage of sleeping pills to a patient despite knowing she was "doctor shopping" to get her hands on more of the addictive medicine, a tribunal has found.
Melbourne general practitioner Michael Kozminsky was suspended after he faced the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on August 21 accused of professional misconduct in relation to a patient he treated between July 17, 2017 and May 31, 2019.
The Medical Board of Australia brought Dr Kozminsky, a Brighton-based GP, before the tribunal following numerous complaints from a female patient's husband.
Dr Kozminsky had been treating the woman for sleeping issues and she had been taking Zolpidem, a sedative used to treat insomnia which is more commonly known as Stilnox.
An investigation found that Dr Kozminsky prescribed the sleeping pill to the woman despite knowing she was also seeking the drug from other doctors, after his office was alerted to it by the woman's husband.
Dr Kozminsky admitted he increased the amount of Stilnox, but told the tribunal it was because he had contacted the other doctors the woman had been seeing and told them he should be the only one prescribing the drug.
He said he increased the dose because that was what the woman had been accustomed to, and an abrupt termination would have had serious withdrawal consequences and led to the end of their therapeutic relationship.
If he had stopped prescribing the drug, she would have continued to find other doctors to provide "Band-Aid" measures and not received coherent treatment, he told the tribunal.
Dr Kozminsky said he planned to slowly reduce her dose, and had come to an agreement with the woman that he would be the only prescriber and she would have to collect the medication daily from one pharmacy.
That plan was not included in any of the doctor's medical notes, which formed part of his alleged misconduct.
When questioned about the care provided to her by Dr Kozminsky in 2023, the woman said he was a good doctor and wanted the complaint withdrawn.
Dr Kozminsky admitted his record keeping was inadequate, but blamed it on his inability to use an unfamiliar computer program.
But the tribunal found the GP had engaged in multifaceted misconduct over a two-year period, including inappropriate prescribing, failures in providing an adequate treatment plan, and failure to reduce or eliminate the patient's reliance on Stilnox.
Dr Kozminsky was suspended for three months with a 12-month condition of further education and oversight.
