A Bellevue plastic surgeon still practicing in Kirkland has been charged with unprofessional conduct by the state’s Medical Quality Assurance Commission for allegedly forging more than $60,000 in prescriptions for relatives and then pocketing the drugs to feed his own habit.
MQAC alleges in charges Gavin Dry used another doctor’s prescription pad to forge more than 250 prescriptions from 2008 to 2011, prescribing Adderral — a stimulant — to his son and Tramadol — a painkiller — to wife, but then kept the pills for himself.
The Bellevue Police Department had also investigated these allegations, brought forward by a pharmacist in Bellevue back in November 2011 who claimed Dry’s wife broke down when she saw the actual prescriptions she was picking up, according to police records. Dry’s wife allegedly told investigators she began investigating prescriptions her husband had been filling for her and their son, identifying several Bellevue pharmacies where they had been filled.
MQAC alleges Dry also was not recording all controlled substances his office received, not even possessing the forms that would have needed to be filled.
The Drug Enforcement Agency began investigating Dry in May 2012, and Dry surrendered his DEA registration shortly after, making him unable to write prescriptions. He settled with the DEA and Justice Department in February 2014, agreeing to pay a $125,000 fine.
According to a 2011 Bellevue Police report, the state Department of Health investigated an anonymous complaint that Dry was writing and filling prescriptions for friends and family in 2004, but the case was considered a “minimal risk” and Dry agreed to stop.
Dry’s medical license remains active while he defends these charges before the commission.