Medical doctor demoted

register to a junior post for incompetence with effect from November 1.
He has been suspended from the register for a period of one year.
Dr Wilson Mandere, founder of Breast Cancer Alleviation in Zimbabwe (BCAZ)’s problems started in 2009 when he failed to adequately examine a dental patient and went on to prescribe medication.
The regulatory authority – Medical and Dental Practitioner’s Council (MDPC) determined that he had acted in a manner lacking clinical judgement and ethics contrary to the expectations of a surgeon and resolved to demote him.
After he was found guilty of these accusations, Dr Mandere was downgraded from being a specialist surgeon.
He is now only eligible to work as a senior registrar under supervision of a specialist general surgeon who will report quarterly on his performance to the MDPC board.
His new designation, – a junior post to the specialist surgeon he was before, however, is not automatic as it has to be approved by the parent Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Health Services Board.
Responding to emailed questions, the MDPC said:
“Be advised that Dr Wilson Mandere appeared before a disciplinary committee of council on an allegation of mismanagement of a patient”.
The MDPC registrar Mrs Josephine Mwakutuya further said: “He (Dr Mandere) was found guilty and was required to undertake remedial action for a period of 12 months”.
However, Dr Mandere whose private rooms are still labeled ‘specialist surgeon’ indicated that he was not happy with the decision.
Dr Mandere said he feels the decision was ‘unjustly done’ and referred further questions to his lawyers, whose numbers went unanswered by the time of going to press.
What makes Dr Mandere’s case unique is the fact that he is the first doctor to face a disciplinary hearing and get a downgrade rather than win the case or get struck off from the medical register totally.
The most infamous doctor to be debarred was Dr Richard McGowan who illegally carried anaesthetic experiments in pain control in 1993 on 500 patients, three of whom died.
Dr McGowan was found guilty of undertaking experiments without following laid down procedures to discover new ways of managing pain.