A search warrant allowing the Ministry of Health to seize about 30,000 patient files from an Auckland GP’s office was a “fishing exercise” based on incomplete and inaccurate information, the doctor’s lawyer old the Court of Appeal today.
The doctor, Judith Gill, is appealing a judicial review that upheld the ministry’s search warrant.
Her practice, Auckland Metro Doctors and Travelcare, was raided by ministry officials and police in November 2008 as part of a fraud investigation.
Dr Gill was suspected of incorrectly enrolling casual patients, such as travellers, in order to receive extra funding.
Thousands of files, both paper and electronic, were removed from the practice and examined by senior ministry officials according to audit protocols.
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