Surgeon banned after 'catastrophic error' contributes to patient's death

NSW surgeon's registration suspended after patient complaints Tue 21 Jul 2026 at 1:26pm In short: A six-month registration ban has been imposed on Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt, following proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administration Tribunal instigated by the state's Health Care Complaints Commission. The tribunal heard evidence of a "catastrophic error" during surgery and thousands of patients having to be recalled. Dr Schmidt has been ordered to undertake further training and supervision. A surgeon working in southern NSW has been handed a six-month ban on her registration after multiple patient complaints. The complaints included failing to identify a cancerous growth during a colonoscopy and operating on the wrong end of another person's bowel, which contributed to their death. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found Dr Liu-Ming Schmidt guilty of professional misconduct, stemming from proceedings instigated by the state's Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) involving 13 patients. The tribunal heard Dr Schmidt has worked at Albury Wodonga Health, BreastScreen NSW, Tumut District Hospital and Griffith Base Hospital, over the last 17 years. It also heard that in January 2023, Dr Schmidt agreed to a condition on her registration to "not practise medicine" for a year after an incident that was the subject of one of the complaints in the HCCC's proceedings. Errors, unacceptable oversight and insight concerns In one complaint, during a 2022 colonoscopy, Dr Schmidt failed to identify a large cancer in a patient's colon. It was identified by another surgeon in a repeat colonoscopy three months later. In another complaint, Dr Schmidt performed emergency surgery at Albury Hospital in 2019 for a bowel obstruction. "The surgery was not successful because Dr Schmidt made a catastrophic error," the tribunal heard. "She brought out the wrong end of the bowel when she formed [a] stoma. She caused a complete mechanical bowel obstruction so that the stoma was not capable of passing faecal material." The patient died nearly four weeks after the surgery. A NSW coroner has previously ruled the death due to complications in part from a surgical error. The tribunal also heard Dr Schmidt failed to disclose the error to the patient. Another complaint regarding a patient with a bowel obstruction found Dr Schmidt failed to provide appropriate management and care for a patient. "Her engagement, oversight and direct involvement was unacceptable," the tribunal ruled. During the proceedings Dr Schmidt also admitted that between 2015 and 2021, she did not take adequate time to perform or capture images of patients undergoing colonoscopies at Wodonga Hospital. She also admitted to failing to keep appropriate patient records and notes. The tribunal heard Dr Schmidt's conduct in relation to one patient led to Safer Care Victoria recalling almost 2,000 of her colonoscopy patients, with around 1,000 undergoing a repeat procedure. The Tribunal heard Dr Schmidt was "diligent" in trying to address the areas of concern raised by the HCCC, however it noted concerns about her insight into her conduct. "Her evidence … was on occasions either inconsistent or qualified by unjustifiably blaming others." Dr Schmidt has also been ordered to pay the HCCC's legal costs, as well as undertake further training and supervision when the suspension on her registration lifts. [Image text:] VEHICLES EXITINC