Established in 1981 as the
proudly serving Melton and Moorabool
9 APRIL, 2024
Holiday circus fun Kids got to enjoy school holiday silliness on April 4 and 5 when Mister Ants’ Slapstick Circus Slid into town. The Slapstick Circus is a slapstick comedy and physical theatre aimed at 3-8 year olds. About 150 kids packed into the first show, filling out the supper room of the Bacchus Marsh Public Hall, before a second show at the Ballan Library the following day. Moorabool mayor Ally Munari said council’s libraries and youth teams run exceptional school holiday activities locally for kids. “It’s delightful to see the young ones get involved in an interactive show like this, and it’s great for parents to have this entertainment close by during the school holidays,“ she said. “I encourage parents and guardians to keep an eye on our social media channels and our Council website every school holidays as there is always plenty going on for kids of all ages.” Details: https://www.moorabool.vic. gov.au/Events
Mister Ant with some of the kids who enjoyed his Slapstick Circus. (Damjan Janevski) 399389_01
Melton doctor banned By Liam McNally A long-serving former Melton GP has been banned from applying for registration as health practitioner for four years after being caught prescribing opiates and benzodiazepines without “clinical justification”. Dr Beng Ong, who in recent years had allowed his registation as a doctor to lapse, had worked as a GP at the Melton Medical Clinic for 44 years. In April 2019 the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) launched an investigation into Dr Ong following a notification from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. A VCAT hearing in late March heard
allegations of misconduct on Dr Ong’s behalf, involving six patients between 2015 and 2019. The misconduct was summarised as prescribing Schedule Four and/or Schedule Eight drugs including Oxycodone, Stilnox, and Diazepam when there was no clinical rationale for prescribing them, prescribing Schedule Eight drugs without the necessary permit and, on those occasions when he did have a permit, prescribing in amounts exceeding what the permit allowed. Dr Ong was also found to have failed to notify the secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services that his patients were drug-dependent persons and that he inadequately managed the clinical care of his patients by prescribing opiates
and-or benzodiazepines in the long-term without appropriately assessing the patients’ pain or documenting a pain management plan, prescribed high dose opiates and-or benzodiazepines without considering the risk to those patients of ongoing use and escalating doses and failed to identify and manage the patients’ drug dependency. The tribunal also heard Dr Ong prescribed Schedule Four Drugs when he had reason to believe that the patient was a drug-dependent person who was exhibiting drug seeking behaviour, prescribed other drugs to his patients concurrently, such as anti-depressants, without undertaking mental health assessments or risk assessments for suicide or self-harm and failed to ensure
continuity of care by failing to keep adequate clinical notes. An AHPRA board submission to the hearing said when the conduct is viewed as a whole, “the Board considers it to demonstrate serious, systemic failures that fall substantially below the standard reasonably expected of a doctor of Dr Ong’s training and experience and is inconsistent with Dr Ong being a fit and proper person to hold registration in the profession”. Dr Ong admitted the conduct alleged and the characterisation of the conduct as constituting professional misconduct. He was banned from applying for registration as a medical practitioner for four years.
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