Practitioner update · NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal
On 8 April 2014 the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Dr Albina Della Bruna guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct over her prescribing and administering of pethidine and anabolic steroids in a cosmetic practice, and her record keeping. It reprimanded her and imposed conditions on her registration, in Health Care Complaints Commission v Dr Della Bruna [2014] NSWCATOD 31.
- Decision
- HCCC v Dr Della Bruna [2014] NSWCATOD 31
- Tribunal
- NCAT, Occupational Division
- Decision date
- 8 April 2014
- Outcome
- Reprimand, conditions, costs
What the complaints concerned
The Health Care Complaints Commission brought three complaints about Dr Della Bruna’s conduct between about January 2009 and March 2010, while she ran her own cosmetic practice in Sydney’s eastern suburbs offering laser hair removal and chemical skin peels. The complaints concerned her prescribing, administering and accounting for pethidine, a Schedule 8 drug, and two anabolic steroids, and her medical record keeping. Dr Della Bruna admitted the substance of all three complaints.
The Tribunal's findings
The Tribunal found that Dr Della Bruna:
- did not record in her drug registers about 1,750 ampoules of pethidine supplied to her or dispensed on her prescriptions;
- gave patients pethidine by intramuscular injection as pain relief for laser hair removal and skin peels, in quantities, and for a purpose, that did not meet the recognised therapeutic standard. She accepted the doses were excessive and that this was “awful judgment”;
- issued pethidine prescriptions that did not comply with the regulations, including on prescription pads printed with other doctors’ names, which she crossed out and replaced with her own;
- did not account for, or keep proper records of, her possession, prescribing and administering of the anabolic steroids Sustanon 250 and Deca-Durabolin, and did not record the clinical reasons for treating patients with them; and
- did not keep adequate medical records. She herself described her record keeping during the period as “chaotic”.
The Tribunal found this was unsatisfactory professional conduct and, taken together, professional misconduct. It described the conduct as serious, and noted that it ended only because of an investigation by the NSW Health Pharmaceutical Services Unit. In 2010 the Medical Council of NSW had imposed interim conditions preventing her from prescribing, possessing or administering Schedule 8 drugs outside hospital.
The Tribunal decided not to suspend or cancel Dr Della Bruna’s registration. It took into account her remorse and admissions, that she had stopped performing the treatments involved, the changes she had made to her practice, her further education, and strong references about her hospital work as a career medical officer. It found no identified risk to patients from her hospital practice.
Orders
The Tribunal reprimanded Dr Della Bruna, ordered her to pay the Commission’s costs, and imposed conditions on her registration, including that she:
- not possess, supply, administer or prescribe Schedule 8 drugs, other than prescribing for hospital patients on hospital stationery;
- for at least three years, practise only in a hospital position or a position approved by the Medical Council, not perform laser hair removal or chemical skin peels, and work only in a practice with at least two other doctors, with one always on site or available by phone;
- submit to audits of her medical records if practising outside a hospital;
- be mentored for an initial period of two years; and
- complete a university course on prescribing in general practice within 12 months.
Source: Health Care Complaints Commission v Dr Della Bruna [2014] NSWCATOD 31, NSW Caselaw and AustLII, accessed 21 October 2026.
