A surgeon whose failure to detect a patient’s cancer prompted a recall of 2000 colonoscopy patients — and whose “catastrophic error” contributed to another patient’s death — has been suspended for six months.

Surgeon Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt, from Albury in NSW, also performed some colonoscopies in 5-10 minutes, including withdrawal, according to a judgement published this month.

While she said this was how she had been trained, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal branded this explanation unacceptable.

The tribunal said one 2022 colonoscopy that Dr Schmidt performed “too quickly” failed to reach the caecum, where an adenocarcinoma was found three months later.