A public hospital anaesthetist who was found in a drunken stupor after abandoning a patient mid-operation has been conditionally allowed to return to work just six weeks after the incident.
Michal Petr, a senior anaesthetist at Wollongong Hospital, disappeared from the operating theatre on May 20 while his patient was still unconscious, without giving handover instructions to the junior anaesthetist.
He had been at the funeral of an anaesthetic nurse earlier that day.
When he never returned to the operating theatre, a search party was sent, eventually discovering him semi-conscious and locked up in a remote room of the hospital 90 minutes after he went missing.
They took him to emergency, where he recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.3 - six times the legal driving limit and double the point where most people find it difficult to walk.
It is understood that Dr Petr's colleagues had raised concerned about his behaviour in the months prior to the incident, but nobody had reported him to the Medical Board of Australia until that day.
This week the NSW Medical Council placed conditions on Dr Petr's registration including that he work with a second anaesthetist, but stopped short of suspending his registration.
The local health district has not allowed him to return to work until its own investigation is complete.
But Fairfax Media understands that it is the second time that Dr Petr has been referred to the medical council for an incident involving intoxication on the job, after he was caught drink driving to an emergency operation in 2011.
He was picked up by police when he was clocked driving at 106 kilometres per hour in an 80kmh zone and recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.161.
He pleaded guilty to driving with a high range blood alcohol level, and the judge fined him $1000 and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.
Although Wollongong Hospital imposed "disciplinary action", he kept his job.
The medical board is prevented by law from confirming whether an investigation took place and no restrictions were placed on Dr Petr's practising licence at that time.
In relation to the latest notification, a spokesman for the NSW Medical Council said that although it had the power to suspend doctors from practising medicine, on this occasion it had decided Dr Petr did not pose a risk to the public if he practised under the conditions imposed and it would carefully monitor his compliance.
"These conditions include a requirement that he can only practice medicine at a location approved by the council and only when a second specialist anaesthetist is present at the same location," the spokesman said.
"Other conditions are not publicly available due to privacy concerns.
"The council takes its statutory responsibility very seriously."
Medical practitioners have a mandatory obligation to report colleagues that they reasonably believe to have practised medicine while under the influence of alcohol.
A Wollongong doctor who asked not to be identified said it was "scandalous" that Dr Petr had been permitted to return to work.
"What does a doctor have to do to be told to go away, sort yourself out and come back when you're safe?" the doctor said.
"If you did this and you were a footy player you couldn't play footy, but you can come and anaesthetise someone. This strikes at the heart of how they treat public patients."
Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District chief executive officer Margot Mains said an anaesthetist had been suspended following "an incident" in May and that this suspension was ongoing while the matter was under investigation.
"The hospital has in place well-established strict procedures around the continuous management of patients undergoing surgery, which were followed on this occasion," Ms Mains said.
"This includes dedicated anaesthetic nursing staff and an anaesthetic consultant for every theatre. Most theatres also have an additional registrar assisting the senior anaesthetist and there is a senior consultant anaesthetist who oversees all theatres.
"The Local Health District takes very seriously any allegation of misconduct and has procedures in place to deal with action which may be taken, as required, in strict accordance with NSW Health policy."
Dr Petr also works as a contractor at Wollongong Private Hospital. A spokesman for that hospital said he was currently on leave.
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