A Queensland general practitioner who slapped a child in the face after becoming entangled in a "power struggle" over swallowing a capsule has had his registration suspended for two months.
David John Levick, 68, has worked as a general practitioner at a medical centre in Bowen since relocating to Australia from South Africa in 2008.
The stand-off took place in his consulting room in December 2013, where he was treating a child who had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Dr Levick spent about 50 minutes trying to get the kid to swallow medication used to treat the condition, without success.
As the situation escalated, he placed his shoes on top of the child's feet, which were only in thongs.
When the child tossed the capsule across the room, Dr Levick responded with a slap to the right cheek, leaving a bruise.
He pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm in October 2014 and was fined $2500.
However, no conviction was recorded, in a decision that Dr Levick said later led him to inappropriately answer "no" to a question about criminal history in correspondence with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
The Health Ombudsman subsequently pursued a disciplinary referral in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which found he had behaved in a manner that constituted professional misconduct and unprofessional conduct.
His registration was suspended for two months, starting from May 2017.
"Dr Levick's conduct during the consultation may be described as an outrageous overreaction to a trying situation," the judgment, delivered in Brisbane on Wednesday, read.
"In one sense it might be said that he was over-conscientious, but the overwhelming inference is that he became involved in a power struggle and finally lost self-control."
The fact the practitioner spent almost an hour trying to get the child to take a pill was in itself "extraordinary", it read.
It was also found the clinician's description of the incident as the child's face "making contact" with his hand and "leaving a small mark" also amounted to white-washing.
But it was noted Dr Levick had practised "under a cloud" ever since the tense stand-off and nevertheless enjoyed strong support from colleagues.
In addition to the registration suspension, he was ordered to pay the ombudsman's costs.
