An overseas doctor found guilty of an ethics breach following a pelvic exam on a patient in Malta, lied to get registration in New Zealand by falsifying a certificate of good standing.

Dr Teimur Youssefi removed reference to the ethics breach and disciplinary action against him when he applied to the Medical Council of New Zealand for provisional registration in May 2015.

It would earn him a conviction in the Wellington District Court in June 2018 for knowingly using a forged document.

His registration was cancelled by the Medical Council in August 2016 but the Polish-trained doctor was allowed to re-register to work in New Zealand in December 2018.

Now Youssefi has been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal for the conviction as well as disrespectful comments and unfounded allegations against colleagues who raised concerns about his competence before the forgery came to light.

Two doctors at Taranaki Base Hospital, where he began working in December 2019, reported instances where they felt Youssefi’s performance during two medical emergencies was of “significant concern”.

One was that Youssefi stopped or delayed the resuscitation of a patient with anaphylaxis, which Youssefi denied, according to a tribunal decision released today.

When the concerns were investigated supervisors Dr Jonathan Albrett and Dr Rajesh Kumar found Youssefi’s CV did not match up with electronic records of his work history at Whanganui Hospital, where he did an orthopaedic rotation between May and August 2015.

The evidence of Dr Jonathan Albrett, an anaesthetist and training supervisor at Taranaki Base Hospital, was preferred over Dr Teimur Youssefi's. Photo / Jenny Feaver

According to the electronic record, Youssefi’s orthopaedic supervisor noted an extensive list of concerns and criticised him for submitting the rotation to the Medical Council as approved when it had not been signed off.

Youssefi, born in Afghanistan and initially educated in Australia, also lied about completing a Medical House Officer run at Whanganui between August and October 2015.

When Albrett put these issues to Youssefi in a “welfare check” meeting Youssefi made derogatory comments about his Whanganui Hospital supervisor, “Dr L”.

“That man was crazy,” Youssefi said. “I was outstanding. He was a bully. He was nuts.”

Of the resuscitation, Youssefi claimed nurses said it was the “best resus they had ever seen” and that “the nurses should be investigated for poor performance”.

He claimed a nurse emailed a psychiatrist at the hospital praising his resuscitation but that doctor said he didn’t know anything about it.

Youssefi also claimed he resigned from Whanganui because of bullying by his supervisor but the comments caused Albrett and Kumar to become concerned about his mental health.

Youssefi’s employment at Taranaki was terminated a few weeks later in February 2020 and in September that year he was diagnosed with anxiety disorder and Cluster C Avoidant Personality Disorder.

Youssefi’s evidence was that he made a stupid decision not to submit “the full copy” of his Malta Medical Council certificate when he applied for registration in New Zealand, and panicked when he applied for a job in Whanganui and submitted an “old” certificate of good standing from Malta.

Dr Youssefi worked at Whanganui Hospital for three months in 2015 on a surgical and orthopaedic run. Photo / Bevan Conley

He claimed his Whanganui supervisor had “selectively” targeted him and put him under scrutiny, singling Youssefi out as a junior doctor.

Two months after he left Whanganui Hospital, the Medical Council referred Youssefi’s registration application to police and in mid-October 2015 he was arrested boarding a flight to Australia to visit family.

Youssefi said three charges were laid against him and in December that year, under extreme pressure, he attempted suicide.

He said the House Officers at Taranaki had turned his mental health issues into something else and that many people were “talking behind his back”.

“I may have been defensive. But I say that is natural, when I was facing allegations, without any prior warning of them, that I had done something, which I had not.”

He denied ever making derogatory remarks and rather than calling Dr L crazy, claimed he said he was “unwell”.

But the tribunal found Albrett and Kumar reliable and credible witnesses who had no reason to fabricate their evidence.

Youssefi on the other hand, had difficulty focusing his responses and failed repeatedly to answer questions.

The tribunal found Youssefi’s conviction reflected adversely on his fitness to practice, that he behaved unpleasantly with Albrett and Kumar, that he said his colleagues bullied him and a nurse praised him when she didn’t, that Dr L was crazy and biased, he questioned the fitness of Albrett to act as supervisor and dismissed Albrett’s concerns as “flagrant lies and “paranoid suspicion”.

It found Youssefi’s forgery was immoral, illegal, unethical and a neglect of his professional duty.

“Dr Youssefi seems to fail to appreciate the enormity of his conduct. This is at best a serious lack of insight. But more than that, he has continued to try to mislead.

“He had altered a certificate provided by an overseas regulator. There was nothing inadvertent about his actions.”

The tribunal censured Youssefi and imposed conditions should he ever resume practice in New Zealand..

He was also ordered to pay $28,500 in costs.

Natalie Akoorie is a senior reporter based in Waikato and covering crime and justice nationally. Natalie first joined the Herald in 2011 and has been a journalist in New Zealand and overseas for 28 years, more recently covering health, social issues, local government, and the regions.