A surgeon has been reprimanded over a case in which a pensioner’s daughter dug into her superannuation to help pay for her father’s cancer operation that could have been carried out in the public sector at no cost.

The surgeon told the 72-year-old, who had no private health insurance, that wait times were too long in a public hospital for his liver resection, according to a decision by the NSW Professional Standards Committee.

Instead, the man’s surgery for cancer in his bile duct was carried out at a private hospital “at considerable expense”, which was in part paid for by the man’s daughter who accessed her superannuation early. 

The committee found the surgeon’s failure to obtain proper financial consent and provide enough information to the patient about wait times amounted to unsatisfactory professional conduct.