Wellington: A New Zealand doctor has been fined for prescribing diet pills for a woman after he failed to detect a giant 14.7 kg cyst in her abdomen.

The doctor, who was not named, was fined 22,500 dollars ($14,860) by a disciplinary tribunal after he was found to have failed to meet the standards required of a doctor.

The patient had visited the doctor several times in 2003 and 2004 complaining of stomach pain and weight gain. But the doctor failed to examine her, give her a blood test or an ultra sound scan and instead prescribed diet pills.

The 44-year-old woman later had to be rushed to hospital where the cancerous cyst, containing 10 litres of fluid, was removed and a hysterectomy performed.