A doctor in Victoria has admitted she breached the medical board’s code of conduct by asking her patients for $150,000 so she could start a prescription vaping clinic for teenagers and write a book, among other things.
On 14 October the GP, Dr Carolyn Beaumont, sent an email to patients stating: “You are receiving this email because you have purchased a nicotine vaping script from me in the past.”
The email invited readers to “donate to my GoFundMe campaign” with a link to the fundraising page. The page states: “I have been vilified by the media, scrutinised by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, and penalized by the medical board.
“This is because I dare to stand up in support of adult smokers and vapers, and help them access the safest products in their quest to become smokefree and healthier. My public profile has made me a liability, but I am proud of my work and I believe in it deeply.”
A spokesperson for the Therapeutic Goods Administration said it was not correct that Beaumont had been scrutinised by the TGA for “supporting vapers” to become “smoke-free and healthier”.
Beaumont’s GoFundMe campaign states that the $150,000 she is asking for will in part be used to develop a teenage vape solutions clinic. It will also be used to help her write a book; to help her become more politically involved; and to “help me continue my work in tobacco harm reduction and … provide easier legal access to these much less harmful alternatives to smoking”.
Wording that has since been removed from the GoFundMe read: “there is so much that needs doing, and I need funding to achieve this. As a single parent, times are difficult. Yes, even for a doctor! I could work as a ‘normal’ doctor for a corporate practice, I could earn large sums in fields such as cosmetic medicine, but none of these are true to my vision of helping reduce the biggest cause of preventable death in the world – smoking.”
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) code of conduct for doctors states good practice involves “not encouraging patients to give, lend or bequeath money or gifts that will benefit you directly or indirectly” as well as “not pressuring patients or their families to make donations to other people or organisations”.
Beaumont acknowledged she had breached the code of conduct by emailing her patients, saying she had made a mistake.
“I acknowledge my actions sending the GoFundMe campaign to my patients breached Ahpra’s code of conduct,” Beaumont said. “I made an error of judgment. I can see it was a breach.
“I am working to address those concerns and I will write to patients on the mailing list explaining the mistake.”
The website for Beaumont’s youth clinic, called Ascend Medical, states: “No judgement. No lecturing. Just friendly and professional GP care, to help YOU manage your vape use”. The website states it offers teenagers “alternatives to blackmarket vaping”.
While prescriptions are no longer required in most states and territories for adults who wish to use vapes to help them quit and can be bought from pharmacists over the counter, those under 18 require a prescription.
As of 25 November, the GoFundMe had raised $4,178.
Beaumont said the approach of her clinic was to get teenagers engaged with speaking to a professional and understand what role the vape was playing in their life, including addressing underlying issues which she said could drive vape use.
She said she would encourage them to change to pharmacy vapes which more clearly state nicotine strength, and would want them to quit vaping.
“The primary goal of my consultations with young people who vape is to ensure they never start smoking,” she said. “I want them to be their best possible self. Of course I encourage young people to quit vaping altogether, but it is important to recognise that pushing this too hard and too soon can be counterproductive.”
She said transitioning children from black market vapes to safer, pharmacy-prescribed vapes with a consistent nicotine concentration and volume “is one method of improving health outcomes in the short-term”.
NSW Health guidelines to support young people quitting e-cigarettes recommend behavioural strategies and encouraging young people to set a quit date, throw their vapes away and to secure support from counsellors, family and friends.
Guardian Australia previously revealed Beaumont founded the nicotine vapes prescription website called medicalnicotine.com.au which at the time advertised “same day” vaping prescriptions and “your choice of product” without a phone or video consult. The website now reads: “smokerhealth.com.au is the new address. Provides $50 consultation and 6 month script (if approved) for smoking cessation products.”
The public register of medical practitioners shows, as of October, seven conditions appeared under Beaumont’s registration which require her to complete a board-approved program of education, and to produce a reflective practice report “in relation to meeting safe standards of care when providing healthcare and prescribing via telehealth”.
Beaumont confirmed she was meeting the conditions placed on her as a result of her telehealth practice, including the education program, and that she was “happy to” meet those conditions.
Beaumont spoke at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum annual conference in Athens in September, where she told the audience that the Ascend Medical clinic “will be a way of engaging teenagers who vape, and it has huge potential to work with schools”.
On her personal website, Beaumont acknowledges her travel expenses were paid for by the forum, whose sponsors include the tobacco companies British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Brands and vaping company Juul Labs.
She also attended the Australian Pharmacy Professional conference with her travel expenses partially covered by “a small contribution” from the vape wholesaler VapeLabs Australia, her website states.
Due to the cost of international travel, and without research institution funding, “it has been necessary on occasion to have travel costs covered in part by [the] tobacco industry”, the website says.
“Note that any such arrangements have been completely unconditional, and have never influenced my clinical decisions,” Beaumont says on the website.
Guardian Australia previously revealed Beaumont presented education sessions on vaping to school students without declaring her tobacco industry support.
On the GoFundMe page, Beaumont wrote: “I don’t receive regular funding from academia, the pharmaceutical or tobacco industries.” After receiving questions from Guardian Australia, she directed readers to the conflict of interest declarations on her website “as I am transparent about funding”.
Speaking generally, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Nicole Higgins, said: “It goes without saying that GPs should act in their patients’ interests at all times, and that the best care comes from a GP who knows their patients and their histories well … Clinical decisions must not be influenced by commercial interests.”
An Ahpra spokesperson said the agency could not comment on matters relating to individual practitioners “beyond information that is already on the public record, including register of practitioners”.
