Pretoria - The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has slapped Centurion doctor Stephen Grieve with an effective three-year suspension from practising medicine, for unprofessional conduct.
The regulatory body said the sanction was announced by its professional conduct committee yesterday, following a deliberation of the charges of unprofessional conduct he faced dating back to 2014.
Grieve was charged with contravening the norms and standards of his profession and bringing the good name of his profession into disrepute by persuading some of his patients and former patients to invest in a company of which he was a director.
This, it was said, while he knew that the company was in financial distress.
Other charges related to him transferring funds invested in his company into his private bank account, and allegedly causing financial prejudice to his patients.
The doctor allegedly persuaded his patients to invest in the company called The Grieve Group, between 2004 to 2009.
Grieve objected to the committee instituting disciplinary proceedings against him, and maintained that the basis of the charges did not constitute unprofessional conduct as they did not relate to the health profession.
He was granted a brief respite by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, which found that Grieve's conduct did not relate to the “treatment” of his patients, or the health profession, thus it could not probe his conduct.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that in terms of the law, the HPCSA, among others, bears extensive supervisory functions, which include protection of the public from conduct arising during the rendering of health services; the maintenance of professional and ethical standards within the profession; and a duty to protect the interests of the public against a medical practitioner.
Pretoria News