A junior doctor in Melbourne issued or attempted to issue 90 forged prescriptions for benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and other medications over a four-year period, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has found. Augustine Er-Yang Lozano Qiu, who stole a specialist's prescription pad, was reprimanded and barred from seeking registration for six months.
The Medical Board of Australia took Dr. Qiu to VCAT after allegations that he stole a prescription pad from a specialist while working in an administrative role. Dr. Qiu obtained provisional registration in February 2018 and practiced in New South Wales before moving to Melbourne in 2021. Months after his arrival in Melbourne, a community pharmacist alerted the hospital to suspected prescription fraud.
Dr. Qiu resigned from The Northern Hospital in Epping on October 11, 2021, after being stood down. Investigators reviewed records from police, health authorities, and numerous pharmacies, as well as evidence from Dr. Qiu's employer and two other medical practitioners whose credentials were used without their knowledge.
Dr. Qiu admitted to stealing the prescription pad in 2015 and subsequently writing 45 prescriptions for himself. He also admitted to using a specialist's credentials to write seven prescriptions for his own use in his wife's name, and another seven in his wife's name using his own prescribing credentials. His wife was not implicated in any wrongdoing.
Furthermore, Dr. Qiu misappropriated generic prescription sheets from hospitals in New South Wales and Melbourne, using them to write 30 self-prescribed scripts with fabricated credentials. The medications obtained included clonazepam, sertraline, fluoxetine, zolpidem, temazepam, furosemide, corticosteroids, and Parkinson's disease medications like trihexyphenidyl.
In May 2023, Dr. Qiu pleaded guilty to stealing the prescription pad and forging prescriptions for Schedule 4 drugs. He stated that he began using the forged scripts after being diagnosed with dystonia and seeking remedies for leg paralysis, though VCAT expressed difficulty accepting this as the sole reason for his actions. The tribunal noted that Dr. Qiu began self-prescribing before his dystonia symptoms appeared and that some obtained drugs were unrelated to the condition.
VCAT described the misconduct as 'objectively serious' and dishonest, citing the theft of prescription pads, misuse of credentials, and repeated self-prescribing over several years. The tribunal emphasized that the deception used to obtain the medications was the core issue, rather than the specific drugs involved. While acknowledging Dr. Qiu's remorse and rehabilitation efforts, VCAT warned that doctors who breach public trust face severe consequences.