Queensland GP banned by watchdog from treating female patients

The healthcare watchdog has banned a Queensland doctor from working with female patients, and ruled that he can only see patients at a practice approved by authorities.

The doctor can no longer treat female patients and can only see patients at a practice approved by authorities.

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.

Matthew Thomas Kelly, who practices as a general practitioner in Beaudesert, 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.

Dr Kelly, who has been a doctor for eight years, 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”.

The immediate registration action imposed on Dr Kelly by the OHO was announced on September 16 and would continue until either the ombudsman removes the conditions imposed or the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) sets the decision aside, the Health Ombudsman says in the statement on its website.

Dr Kelly graduated with a nursing degree from the University of Newcastle in 1996 and obtained a Bachelor of Medicine from Queensland’s Bond University in 2013.

The Courier-Mail has contacted Dr Kelly for comment at “Doctors@Beaudesert” and the receptionist, who declined to give her name, said Dr Kelly was on leave and declined to comment.