Elderly couple paid $300,000 for 'free' health care

A family lawyer says he was surprised and concerned when his elderly clients told him they had paid their doctor and his partner more than $300,000, in return for "free" medical care.

Auckland GP Dr Donald Ian McDonald has admitted he accepted $260,000 from the elderly couple, who have name suppression, but is denying he failed to appropriately manage the couple's health care.

A Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Auckland today heard how the couple paid Dr McDonald in instalments between January 1998 and November 2004.

McDonald's former de facto partner Aruna Williams was paid $60,000.

After proceedings in the High Court, Ms Williams has been ordered to pay back the money.

The elderly man died in December last year, his wife is in a rest home and suffers from dementia.

Dr McDonald had known the couple since he had been administering them with acupuncture in the 1970s but had not become their GP until 1998.

Dr McDonald has described the couple as his "second parents".

The couple's lawyer Stephen Gully told the hearing today he had drawn up the wills for the couple and the woman named the doctor as one of the beneficiaries.

The husband later contacted him to say he wanted to make changes without his wife knowing, he said.

However, the elderly man told Mr Gully he did not agree with his wife's wishes to favour Dr McDonald in the will, preferring instead his nephew, the tribunal was told.

Mr Gully said he learnt sometime in 2003 during discussions about the wills that Dr McDonald had accepted the payment and of the large amount involved, with "surprise and consternation".

The couple were vague about the payments but did say they expected free medical treatment for the rest of their lives, in exchange, he said.

In 2005 Mr Gully received a phone call from a medical professional at a geriatric hospital in the North Shore who was concerned about the couple's relationship with the doctor and the payment he had received.

Dr McDonald was not at the hearing today.

The hearing has been set down for four days.

- NZPA

Source: Stuff.co.nz