Queensland GP banned by watchdog from treating female patients

A Bundaberg doctor has been hit with an immediate ban from working with any female patients.

A Queensland GP has been banned from treating women.

A Queensland doctor has been slapped with an immediate ban from working with female patients by the healthcare watchdog, and can only see patients at a practice approved by authorities.

Htun Wai Yan Lwin, who practices as a general practitioner in Bundaberg West, has been ordered to apply for approval to continue practising at his current health service by giving proof that his current employer knows of the conditions limiting his work with women.

He must not tell female patients personally that he cannot see them and he must “take all reasonable steps” to ensure they are told by reception staff at the time of booking, according to the conditions imposed on his registration.

He has also been ordered to tell the OHO “if at any time” he is “charged with an indictable offence”.

Dr Lwin, who obtained his Australian Medical Council certificate in 2017 and graduated from medicine in Myanmar in 2009, has also been ordered to seek approval if he wishes to work at a new practice and must submit forms acknowledging his receptionist booking staff are aware that Office of the Health Ombudsman (OHO) staff “will contact them and exchange information”.

Details of the conditions were published on Dr Lwin’s registration details with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency website.

The immediate registration action imposed on him by the state OHO was announced on the OHO website on Wednesday, and was effective from November 9, the website states.

The action would continue until either the ombudsman removes the conditions imposed or the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) overturns it, the OHO says in the statement on its website.

The Courier-Mail has contacted Dr Lwin at his practice for comment, but he was not available this morning.