Named and shamed: The Victorian doctors banned in 2023

A doctor jailed for horrific sexual abuse and a clinician slammed for her failures amid a string of preventable baby deaths are among doctors banned in 2023. See the full list.

There have been 13 doctors banned from medicine by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal this year. Picture: iStock

A doctor jailed for horrific sexual abuse and a hospital director slammed for her governance failings during a string of preventable baby deaths are among the 13 doctors banned from medicine by VCAT this year.

Eleven of the 13 banned clinicians were found to have committed conduct so serious their registration was cancelled by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal — as opposed to temporarily suspended.

This means they will have to reapply to the regulator for their registration once their disqualification period ends — and may never treat patients again if they can’t prove they are now suitable to practice.

The longest ban was given to a doctor — known only as XOT to protect his victim’s privacy — who was disqualified from medicine for 16 years after years of horrific sexual assault against his daughter.

See the full list below of the doctors banned by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2023.

The list — based on records from the tribunal and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency — represents doctors hit with sanctions after a tribunal found allegations of concerning conduct against them had been proven.

It does not include doctors banned by the regulator while under investigation as these bans – a temporary measure known as an immediate action order – can be issued by the watchdog without going through a tribunal, and the investigation is ongoing.

Dr Lee Gruner

Dr Lee Gruner was the medical services director for Bacchus Marsh Hospital.

The senior doctor who presided over a spate of preventable stillbirths and newborn deaths at a Melbourne hospital would likely never work in medicine again, after she was banned for at least ten years.

Former Bacchus Marsh Hospital medical services director Dr Lee Gruner was not accused of providing poor healthcare herself to the 11 babies who died at the hospital – including seven whose deaths were later ruled as avoidable.

But VCAT did find she neglected to ensure the safe delivery of clinical services and her leadership failings – including a failure to properly raise the alarm over issues including the unusually high number of baby deaths, “extreme risks of medical staffing in the obstetrics department” and poor record keeping – represented professional misconduct.

The Tribunal suspended the-then retired doctor’s registration in March 2023, and disqualified her from reapplying for ten years, finding she demonstrated “little remorse or insight”.

Dr Luz de los Angeles Conejera

The Victorian General Practitioner was disqualified for 12 months in January 2023 after VCAT found she engaged in “serious and widespread” conduct involving controlled medications between from 2016 to 2018.

VCAT heard Dr Luz Conejera – who already had conditions imposed on her registration over a number of past issues including an overdose – broke these rules, prescribing medications to patients without supervision more than 50 times.

She also prescribed restricted medications – including a strong painkiller – to a patient without appropriate safeguards, self-administered a scheduled medicine, possessed scheduled medications she was not allowed to have and prescribed an “excessive” quantity of a scheduled medication to a patient.

Her 12 month disqualification will end on 19 January 2024.

Dr Bruno Giorgio

Dr Bruno Giorgio was banned over his conduct by VCAT. Picture: Supplied

The former Shepparton gynaecologist and obstetrician was disqualified for a year over a string of issues, including making inappropriate comments to patients, failing to properly obtain consent and prescribing controlled medications to both family members and himself.

VCAT also heard he told parents in an “inappropriate and unprofessional manner” that their autistic daughter had been sexually abused after an examination – despite lacking the expertise to make such a serious finding and later being found to be incorrect.

They heard on another occasion – which showed disrespect and a lack of compassion – he told a patient who lost her pregnancy that his “stats” were now “ruined”, “effectively blaming a patient for the failure of the procedure to prevent a miscarriage”.

Dr Giorgio’s disqualification will expire on January 22 2024, but he retired prior to his ban and is not expected to return to work.

Dr Mohammad Azizul Karim

Dr Mohammad Karim was suspended for nine months in March 2023, after pleading guilty in 2019 to unlawfully assaulting a patient.

VCAT heard he called the woman a “beautiful girl”, asked to hug her and then kissed her without her permission. They heard he was convicted in 2009 for unlawful assault against another woman “in a similar fashion”.

VCAT ruled that while he had “seriously failed two patients, these instances are nine years apart” and did not mean he was not a “fit and proper person” to practice medicine.

“If he returns to practise after suspension, we are confident that he will practise medicine to the benefit of the community.”

His suspension ended on December 9 2023 meaning he is legally allowed to return to medicine. He is required to complete an education course on maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.

Dr Samir Redzepagic

VCAT disqualified Samir Redzepagic for 18 months after finding he assisted 38 cardiothoracic surgeries in 2018, in a “flagrant” breach of conditions placed on his registration.

VCAT heard Redzepagic was only allowed to work in general practice – and even then under certain conditions – but instead assisted surgeries at Mulgrave Private Hospital and one at Knox Private Hospital.

They heard the patients, surgeons and hospitals did not know he was not allowed to practice and Redzepagic's’ responses indicated a “lack of insight into, or an unwillingness to acknowledge, the seriousness of his conduct”.

The board could not cancel his registration as it had lapsed in 2018, so disqualified him for 18 months in orders issued in March 2023.

XOT

A Victorian doctor has been banned from healthcare after he sexually assaulted his daughter for more than nine years, beginning when she was just eight years old.

VCAT heard the doctor – who organised an abortion for his daughter after he impregnated her – got away with his crimes for more than 30 years.

Known only as XOT to protect his daughter’s identity, he was sentenced to more than 16 years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to one count of indecent assault and one charge of incest in 2020.

XOT will be 90 years old when his prison term ends. VCAT disqualified him from applying for registration as a registered health practitioner, or providing any healthcare service, for 16 years.

They said it was “difficult to imagine a more serious breach of trust” and noted his work as a medical practitioner enabled him to cover up his abuse – such as organising an abortion and prescribing the contraceptive and morning after pill.

RRB

The Victorian doctor was banned from medicine for 18 months after he prescribed controlled drugs to his wife for both her and his own personal use.

VCAT, who suppressed the doctor’s name to protect the identity of his wife, found he prescribed medication – “including drugs of dependence” – to his spouse between 2014 and 2019.

He prescribed her excessive amounts of drugs that were “not clinically indicated” and failed to refer her for assessment and treatment for issues including pain and addiction management.

They heard he self-administered one of the drugs – temazepam – that had been prescribed in her name and his improper prescribing was exposed after his wife was admitted to hospital for an alleged overdose.

“While there are some matters which contextualise how RRB came to be treating Person X, and prescribing her with the S4 drugs, it is unfortunate that RRB has ended his lengthy medical career in this way,” they found.

Their ban, issued in June this year, will be in place until December 2024.

AEB

The Victorian doctor was suspended for six months over a string of issues – including treating multiple family members and inappropriate prescriptions spanning from 2004 to 2019.

While medical professionals can treat family members in an emergency, VCAT heard the doctor – known as AEB – provided care to people including her son, husband and mother where it was not necessary.

She also prescribed a controlled drug – called pethidine – to a patient for longer than 8 weeks without obtaining the required permit to do so.

Her suspension will end on December 30. VCAT imposed several conditions on her registration, including that she receive mentoring from a registered professional on issues including professional boundaries and prescribing schedule 8 medications.

Dr Simon David Thompson

The doctor who punched a man in the waiting room of his Ironbark medical clinic was banned from healthcare for one year.

VCAT cancelled Dr Simon Thompson’s registration in September this year after the Bendigo doctor punched a patient – who he accused of stealing from him – in the jaw in October 2020.

His medical registration was suspended under immediate action in January 2020 and he pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful assault in May 2021. He was fined without conviction.

Dr Thompson was disqualified for one year but is not expected to apply to return to medicine, having indicated at his criminal hearing that he would retire.

Dr Atheer Hmood

Dr Atheer Hmood was banned for eight years by VCAT.

The doctor who touched five women for “a hidden sexual purpose” under the guise of a medical exam was banned from medicine for eight years in September 2023.

VCAT cancelled former Geelong doctor Atheer Hmood’s registration, disqualified him from reapplying for eight years and banned him from providing any health service to women while alone for the same period of time.

The tribunal found that Dr Hmood engaged in professional misconduct by inappropriately touching five female patients – including a 15-year-old girl – between February 2010 and October 2013.

They heard Dr Hmood purported to use a stethoscope to examine their breathing when he inappropriately touched them, with the first incident occurring at Geelong Hospital and the other four during Dr Hmood’s time as a General Practitioner at Kilmore Medical Practice.

They found Hmood – who was acquitted of criminal charges relating to the incidents – showed “little remorse” and they needed to impose a sanction serious enough to “annul any risk of Hmood taking advantage of vulnerable patients or clients in the future”.

Dr Jonathan Paul Brown

A retired Melbourne psychiatrist who made inappropriate contact with and sexual comments – including about his own sex life – to patients has been banned from healthcare.

VCAT heard Dr Jonathan Paul Brown was inappropriate to three young female patients between 2016 and 2018, telling one woman her breasts will get “bigger” when her mental health improves and another that she was “very attractive”.

They heard he kissed one patient on the cheek at the end of two appointments and massaged another woman under her clavicle.

VCAT disqualified him from applying for medical registration for 18 months in September 2023, and also banned him from providing any health services while he is unregistered.

GMZ

A doctor was disqualified for three years and banned from providing any health service involving certain medications or direct care of a patient after multiple prescription issues.

VCAT found he issued prescriptions in the names of various patients and family members that were actually for his own use on 31 occasions while struggling with depression and an addiction to Zolpidem, a strong sleeping pill.

The doctor, known only as GMZ, also inappropriately provided treatment and medication to close family and friends, and had previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges over accessing controlled medications in 2015.

But VCAT heard within five weeks of conditions on his registration – imposed after the criminal matter – being lifted in August 2018, he began misusing Zolpidem again.

Dr Kadandalea Prakash Shetty

A former Victorian doctor ignored a patient’s abnormal test results and concerning symptoms, leading to a “significantly and unjustifiably delayed” stage 4 cancer diagnosis.

VCAT cancelled Dr Kadandalea Shetty’s registration in September 2023 after an investigation found the doctor’s patient – who died in 2021 just two months after his diagnosis – saw them multiple times over several months, complaining of pain.

VCAT heard Dr Shetty, who retired prior to the hearing, failed to recognise the patient’s “deteriorating condition and abnormal results” and continued to treat their pain with steroid injections, which was “ “inappropriate and not evidence based”.

“Dr Shetty failed to provide appropriate and competent medical care (including investigations, diagnosis and treatment) to his patient.”

Dr Shetty was also found to have engaged in professional misconduct over a separate incident, in August 2020, when he did not obtain adequate informed consent before an anal examination of a patient.

VCAT did not disqualify Dr Shetty given he had no plans to reapply for his registration, having retired.