Charlie Teo to have practice overseen by Medical Council of NSW

Top neurosurgeon Charlie Teo will have his practice overseen by the Medical Council of NSW after complaints from other surgeons about his last-chance operations.

Top neurosurgeon Charlie Teo will have his practice overseen by the Medical Council of NSW after complaints from other surgeons about his last-chance operations on patients with “inoperable” conditions.

The high-profile doctor has to provide a monthly log of names and procedures for all patients and seek the second opinion of another neurosurgeon before performing on two rare brain conditions — malignant intracranial tumour and brain stem tumours.

The slapdown follows the acclaimed neurosurgeon appearing before an “immediate action panel” of the Medical Council last week.

Dr Teo, 63, has already said publicly after the hearing that he was happy to provide greater transparency with his patient consultations but the full list of fresh rules he has work under have been published on Tuesday next to his name on the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

Charlie Teo.

The council has ruled that he cannot perform those two types of surgery without a written statement supporting the operations from a council-approved neurosurgeon who has to ensure that Dr Teo has explained to the patient all the risk associated with the procedures and obtained informed financial consent.

In a statement after the hearing last Thursday, Dr Teo said that before Covid hit, he had ­always involved another ­neurosurgeon — usually a fellow neurosurgeon from one of the world’s leading medical schools.

“Dr Teo accepted the ­Medical Council’s direction to consult with another neurosurgeon on two rare types of surgery and will also have retrospective discussions with a colleague to review outcomes,” the statement said.

“Dr Teo believes that his treatment of patients, who suffer from extremely rare, complicated and terminal brain cancers, had always been in line with local and inter­national standards of care and welcomes greater transparency of his office procedures. “

He said he was often approached by patients suffering from brain cancer who have been told that there is nothing else to be done.

The Medical Council said Dr Teo’s case would also be referred to the state’s health watchdog, the Health Care Complaints Commission.

He also has to submit to an audit of his medical practice, by a random selection of his medical records, by someone nominated by the Medical Council of NSW within six months.

Dr Teo has always been open about giving patients told by other surgeons that their conditions were inoperable another chance.

“Published manuscripts over the past 30 years show that my success rate with these so-called ‘inoperable’ tumours has been very successful in curing ‘incurable’ tumours, ­extending survival or improving quality of their live,” he said in his statement last week.