Doctor Bruce Heideman disqualified for prescribing steroids and human growth hormones out of Norwood gym

A Doctor prescribed steroids and human growth hormones through an unofficial business he set up out of the lobby of a Norwood gym.

A doctor has been banned from practising medicine for four years after running an unofficial business out of the lobby of a Norwood gym providing steroids and peptides to body builders and body sculptors.

Dr Bruce Heideman, 45, was also found to have lied to investigators and destroyed patients records.

In a judgment published on Friday, the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal was scathing of Heideman’s actions, saying he had put patients at risk and tried to cover his tracks.

The tribunal concluded Heideman, who at the time was working in workplace injury management, set up an unofficial clinic in the common area of a Norwood gym between December 2013 and June 2016.

The business, named Vitalrecomp, operated once a fortnight and, according Heideman, had offered health and wellbeing services using a holistic medical model.

Heideman told the investigators from the Australian Health Practioners Regulation Authority he had been operating out of rooms at a Norwood address.

The address turned out to be a gym, where Heideman had set up in the common area and would talk to patients.

Heideman later admitted seven of his patients had been “competitive bodybuilders or body sculptors and he prescribed for the purpose of enhancing their body building or body sculpting performance”.

Among the drugs Heideman prescribed were growth hormone releasing peptides, growth hormones and anabolic steroids.

A photo of steroids like those prescribed.

One of the medications, Anastrozole, is typically used to treat breast cancer in post-menopausal women by suppressing oestrogen production.

All the medications have associated health risks if misused, including increased risk of cancer, liver damage and other mental and physical issues.

The tribunal found many of Heideman’s customers were gym owners, gym managers or personal trainers.

The clinic did not turn out to be a success and after several years Heideman shut it down and said he destroyed the majority of his notes.

Heideman came to the attention of AHPRA in August 2016 when he purchased injectable peptides from a pharmacy in Ballina, New South Wales.

A subsequent investigation showed he had been prescribing the drug to friends and family members.

Initially Heideman strongly refuted the allegations, calling them variously “outrageous”, “slanderous”, “nothing more than bullying and intimidation” and a “vendetta” against him.

He submitted patient notes to the tribunal, which were strongly suspected to have been written by him years after actually seeing the patient.

In 2020, Heideman admitted his role in the clinic. He submitted numerous character references from his new role practising in Melbourne.

He submitted that he should be disqualified for two years, but the tribunal considered the conduct too serious.

“We have no doubt that (Heideman) realised that he was deliberately providing AHPRA with inaccurate, incomplete and misleading information in order to cover up his unprofessional prescribing conduct,” the tribunal concluded.

Heideman was disqualified and will be unable to apply for registration again until late 2024.