Guyon Gavin Scott in court for writing own prescriptions during stress of COVID-19 pandemic at Tamworth hospital

Guyon Gavin Scott was head of Tamworth hospital's intensive care unit during the pandemic, and Tamworth Local Court heard on Monday he had been on call essentially 24-hours per day, seven days per week.

Defence solicitor Drew Hamilton told the court the 50-year-old emergency medicine and intensive care specialist had made "real inroads" in seeking help.

He made a successful application for Scott's charges to be diverted under the mental health act, with a supervised treatment plan in place.

Mr Hamilton told the court there was a direct nexus between the responsible role Scott held, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the charges.

He handed up a defence bundle, including written submissions, specialist reports, a statement of agreed facts, and a criminal history, which the court heard was clear.

Mr Hamilton said Scott had made a "significant service to the community".

Police prosecutor Sergeant Rob Baillie did not argue against the application in the circumstances.

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Magistrate Julie Soars said COVID-19 had been challenging in the court system, let alone for frontline health workers.

"I can't imagine how much stress people such as him would be under," she said.

"So much being asked of them, and so much being given."

She said the charges were serious and there was a need for general deterrence, because "doctors are entrusted with these powers" of prescribing.

However, she said Scott had acted opportunistically by taking another doctor's pad and writing prescriptions for himself for what she said were "very addictive" drugs, and noted the extreme demands on him in the role he held at the time. She said he was unlikely to reoffend.

"In normal circumstances it would raise a lot of concern," she said.

"It was a very unusual situation."

She ordered that the treatment plan was the appropriate outcome, "somewhat unusually for a serious matter".

She added a condition that Scott must abstain from taking drugs that aren't prescribed to him by his treating physician.

The court heard he had stepped down from his position as department director, and would be subject to other regulations at work, the details of which cannot be reported for legal reasons.

Scott was charged in September, last year, after an Oxley police investigation.

He was accused of larceny of another doctor's $1 prescription pad between January and May, last year, to which he pleaded guilty previously.

He faced further charges of four counts of forging or altering a prescription for a prescribed restricted substance; and two counts of uttering a forged or altered prescription.

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