A NORTH FREMANTLE doctor is taking the national health regulator to the State Administrative Tribunal in an effort to lift restrictions on her medical licence after being pinged for advertising alternative Covid treatments.
Serene Lim, who previously practised complementary medicine in Claremont, said she wants to return to work but is unable to due to conditions on her licence arising from a lengthy legal dispute with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Serene Lim, who owned Siena Beauty, was flagged in April 2020 by the TGA after advertising both in the Fremantle Herald and on her website that suggested ozone saunas and melatonin were alternative Covid-19 preventions and cures.
During two weeks at the height of the pandemic Siena Beauty advertised and sold services and products as “Corona virus protection” via its website.
• Siena Beauty director Nick Ward and his wife Dr Serene Lim, who’s hoping to have restrictions lifted so she can return to work. Photo by Isla Tomlinson
Dr Lim said she had felt concerned over the brewing pandemic and with a vaccine still more than a year from development, had researched alternative treatments to help boost clients’ immunity.
She claims to have employed a new receptionist who had “revamped” Siena’s website, listing and advertising 15 items that protected people from the virus.
“I viewed it and said just to be on the safe side: remove Covid protection and put down viral protection,” Dr Lim said.
However, the TGA fined Siena Beauty $37,800 for advertising preventative treatments under the name Covid and said Dr Lim had “preyed on the vulnerable”.
“These are false allegations. I had done the complete opposite. I was supporting people. I didn’t prey on the vulnerable,” Dr Lim said.
She paid TGA’s fine on the advice of her lawyer under a no admission of guilt – which under the Privacy Act, kept her name and business confidential and out of the media.
But later in that year a Channel Nine program discovered her details and aired an episode titling her a “Peddler of Fake Coronavirus Treatments”.
‘Ambushed’
Dr Lim said she felt “ambushed” and the fallout led to AHPRA suspending her licence and forcing her to close the business.
“[AHPRA] rang me up and said ‘shut your clinic right now and don’t contact your patients’,” Dr Lim said.
“I was not allowed to talk to my patients.
“I was not allowed to offer transfer of care.
“Some patients were very sick.
“I wanted to talk to them and even introduce them to another doctor,” Dr Lim said.
In 2023 AHPRA launched a further investigation, asking for the names and financial details of patients who purchased the treatments and products subject to the TGA fines.
The request was redirected to Siena Beauty’s management company director, her husband Nick Ward.
Mr Ward referred AHPRA to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and refused to provide the patient and financial documentation.
Siena Beauty was subsequently prosecuted for failing to comply with the information request, leading to a years-long legal battle that ended in court on Tuesday when the pair plead guilty.
AHPRA originally sought a $10,000 penalty and $43,000 in legal costs, but the magistrate reduced these to $2,500 and $5,000.
The authority lifted her suspension in 2022, placing conditions on Dr Lim that will be the subject of the SAT appeal
Dr Lim, who hasn’t worked for the past five years, said the conditions were too onerous.
“My conditions include not being able to provide [intravenous] vitamins.
“AHPRA also criticised my use of red-light therapy saying there is no evidence and that it should be used only for cosmetic skin rejuvenation,” Dr Lim said.
Dr Lim also has to work under supervision, which she described as “somebody breathing down my neck”.
Dr Lim said she will use the tribunal proceeding to try and lift the restrictions and defend herself against allegations of using “non-evidence based medicine”.
“After destroying my career and livelihood, a year later, the [AHPRA] board said that I shouldn’t have been suspended, only cautioned. No apology. No compensation.”
AHPRA chief executive Justin Untersteiner welcomed Tuesday’s outcome, saying the case served as a “clear reminder to practitioners and businesses of the importance of cooperating fully with AHPRA investigations, and that AHPRA will take enforcement action, including prosecution, where necessary”.
by ISLA TOMLINSON