Doctor struck off after receiving money for 'free' care

In a Follow-up to this story, which Stuff.co.nz reported & listed on here , here is the result of this:
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Doctor struck off after recieving money for 'free' care:

An Auckland GP has been struck off after accepting $260,000 from an elderly couple in return for "free" medical care.

Donald Ian McDonald, 62, was struck off the register after being found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, a spokeswoman told NZPA.

He was also censured and fined and will have to pay 30 percent of costs incurred by the inquiry. The tribunal also found Dr McDonald had failed to manage the couple's medical care to an expected standard.

Dr McDonald admitted he accepted $260,000 from the elderly couple, who have name suppression, but denied he failed to appropriately manage the couple's health care.

The tribunal heard that the couple paid Dr McDonald in instalments between January 1998 and November 2004. His former de facto partner, who also has name suppression, was paid $60,000.

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

The former partner was ordered to pay back the money in the High Court.

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

The New Zealand Herald reported that the couple's lawyer, Stephen Gully, told the hearing yesterday he had drawn up wills for the couple and the woman named the doctor as one of the beneficiaries.

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

Source & Contd:Stuff.co.nz

Rhodesia's last white minority ruler dies

Rhodesia's last white minority ruler dies
20/11/2007 - 20:24:49

Ian Smith, the last prime minister of white-ruled Rhodesia, whose attempts to resist black rule dragged the country now known as Zimbabwe into isolation and civil war, has died, according to a family friend. He was 88.

Mr Smith died at a clinic near Cape Town, South Africa, according to long-time friend Sam Whaley. He had recently suffered a stroke.

Mr Smith unilaterally declared the country’s independence from its colonial power, Britain, on November 11, 1965. He then served as the prime minister of Rhodesia from 1965 to 1979 during white minority rule. The country failed to gain international recognition and United Nations economic sanctions were instituted.

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He finally bowed to international pressure and Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party won elections in 1980.

To many white Rhodesians, he was a kind of idol. To most blacks, his rule symbolised the worst of racial oppression.

Mr Whaley, who was a senator in the former Rhodesia and a legal expert for Smith’s party, said he had received a phone call from a friend of Smith’s stepdaughter, Jean Tholet, in Cape Town about Smith’s death.

“He was a man of grit and courage,” Mr Whaley said.

“I am sure that he is happy that he hasn’t had to hold back any more,” he said in reference to his final weeks clinging to life.

Source: Breakingnews.ie