Doctor’s $300,000 bid for lost earnings from watchdog who moved in after wife’s death
A doctor who cut his wife’s throat with a kitchen knife after she overdosed on cocaine and then waited more than three hours to call for help wanted $300,000 in lost earnings from the medical regulator because they failed to process his application to resume practice.
Respiratory and sleep physician Peter Spencer, who now practises as a “life coach”, was referred by a coroner in June to prosecutors for negligent manslaughter by failing to call an ambulance upon discovering wife Mayumi Spencer, 29, in need of urgent medical help. No charges have been laid following the referral.
Peter Spencer has been referred to prosecutors by the state coroner over concerns he may have committed negligent manslaughter.
Spencer surrendered his licence to practice five days after the death of his wife from cocaine toxicity in January 2015, but by May of that year his legal representatives wrote to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) seeking reinstatement.
The regulator’s main concern, the letter said, was that Spencer was an intravenous cocaine user himself, a habit that he was unlikely to start again because, they said, it represented “an eternal legacy of grief over how tragically such behaviours can go wrong”.
AHPRA said they would not process the application until after criminal investigations were completed. Spencer applied again in January 2020, but he was still not registered.
In August 2020, Spencer filed a claim in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to compel the agency to process his application and pay him $300,000 in compensation for loss of income while the decision was being made.
“They have not processed my application despite taking payment on 15/01/2020, continually delaying the application while not processing it,” the documents released by VCAT say.
Spencer told the tribunal his application should be urgently processed because he is a respiratory specialist and his skills were needed during the pandemic. He did not specifically identify what period the $300,000 applied to.
Japanese-born Mayumi was found dead in the couple’s Docklands apartment in 2015.
The coroner’s finding said Spencer told investigators his wife had a fit about 4am and began vomiting. He tried to resuscitate her before, believing she had a blockage in her throat, attempting to perform a procedure called a cricothyroidotomy.
Peter Spencer’s VCAT case is due back in court next month.
He called paramedics at 7.30am, who arrived to find Spencer attempting “pretty gentle” CPR on Mayumi, who they believed had been dead for “a considerable amount of time”.
After an initial investigation, no criminal charges were laid and the matter was referred to the coroner.
In a March 2021 letter sent to AHPRA and obtained by The Age, Spencer vented his frustration at the regulator, accusing it of ignoring his presumption of innocence and abusing its role as the medical watchdog.
“AHPRA has drawn many clumsy and callous inferences from the pathetically run police investigation, but what you have not observed is that after six years, there are no charges and no crime committed,” he said.
“That AHPRA resorts to lying and misleading to keep up the ruse is unforgivable. No matter how you put it, that is the truth of the matter.”
Spencer also suggested that AHPRA had deferred their responsibility to Victoria Police, who he labels “incompetent and prone to corruption”.
“At what point do you understand that your stated position is without any merit, legal accountability or natural justice. This decision is beyond absurdity,” he said.
“No matter what inferences you want to draw, at some point, there is a precedent for letting doctors involved in tragic events like this practice again. You cannot keep me out indefinitely, and given the amount of time that has passed, that is what you are doing.“
He also vented his frustration at VCAT employees, telling them to “OPEN YOUR EYES [sic]” and accusing them of “inventing rules” which thwarted his attempts to obtain his licence.
During the inquest, State Coroner John Cain found that Mayumi told friends Spencer had kicked her out of the house on several occasions.
He also “punched her in the jaw, slapped her, pushed her over and hit her, sent her abusive messages calling her a ‘piece of shit’ and a ‘whore’, and on one occasion, had allegedly injected her with cocaine against her wishes”.
Spencer’s VCAT case is due back in court next month.
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