Enemies jealous of my ‘superior skills’: Charlie Teo hits out ahead of hearing

Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has lashed out at the disciplinary procedures against him over allegations of unsatisfactory professional conduct, saying it was driven by enemies and business rivals jealous of his “superior skills”.

The controversial neurosurgeon made the claims in a podcast with businessman and former host of Celebrity Apprentice Australia, Mark Bouris, days out from a disciplinary hearing that begins in Sydney on Monday.

Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo outside his Pagewood house.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“It’s got nothing to do with fairness, what’s right or wrong. It’s all got to do with people’s agendas. And the agenda is to destroy Charlie Teo,” he said.

“I know that I’ve got this skill … I take out tumours that no one else can take out. And all the surgeons around the world that watch me are just absolutely amazed by it. So when I operate in other countries, I get four or five or 10 or 20 neurosurgeons watching it, and they just are blown away by it.”

The surgeon, who gave the interview late last week, also told Bouris that the worst thing about being “subjected to all this vexatious vilification by colleagues” is that it sends a message to “all those good, young, aggressive neurosurgeons” that “if you try and do what Charlie does, this is what’s going to happen to you.”

He alleged that one of the doctors complaining about him is “in competition with me.” The surgeon also claimed that he was “being judged by your enemies … it’s totally stacked”.

‘It’s all got to do with people’s agendas. And the agenda is to destroy Charlie Teo.’

Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo on allegations against him.

A spokesperson from the Health Professional Councils Authority told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that “members are required to disclose any conflicts of interest, and consideration is given to any issue of bias raised by the parties to ensure eligibility for appointment to the Professional Standards Committee [PSC]” .

The Health Care Complaints Commission’s five-day hearing into Teo, beginning on Monday, is before a PSC that hears matters of negligence, such as inappropriate care and treatment, or conduct which falls short of expected professional standards. The committee may reprimand and/or impose conditions on a practitioner’s registration.

In the podcast, Teo attacked the media for publishing articles that questioned his practices. He said two or three complaints had come from interstate doctors following articles in the Herald in 2019.

Businessman Mark Bouris, who had Charlie Teo on his podcast.Credit: Louie Douvis

Of the 14 neurosurgeons and related specialists interviewed on that occasion, not one questioned Teo’s surgical skills. Instead, they raised serious questions about his judgment, narcissistic behaviour and charging financially-stressed people exorbitant fees when some surgeries could be done for free in a public hospital.

Teo complained this masthead’s stories encouraged complaints from “all the colleagues who are sitting back there jealous and fuming and wanting to destroy me.”

This masthead understands that one of the complaints against Teo involves his surgery on an inoperable brain tumour known as a DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma). Experts from around the world have said it would be “incomprehensible” and “indefensible” to operate on a DIPG because of the damage it would cause.

Last October a joint Herald and 60 Minutes investigation revealed that Teo had charged families extraordinary amounts of money for ultimately futile operations that catastrophically injured his patients, including four-year-old Mikolaj Barman. Teo’s $80,000 operation to remove Mikolaj’s DIPG in Singapore in 2018 left the little boy unable to breathe on his own, or to walk or talk. He died ten months after the operation.

While the HCCC was investigating those initial complaints, Teo’s brain stem surgeries were deemed a possible public health and safety risk. After an urgent hearing of the NSW Medical Council in August 2021, conditions were placed on Teo’s ability to practice.

Teo told the podcast that medical authorities “can always hide behind this feigned altruism or public safety concept” and that the real reason he could no longer operate in Australia was that his colleagues were resentful of his ability to “take out tumours that other people have called inoperable.”

Teo complained that just because he has had some bad surgical outcomes, these shouldn’t negate thousands of other successful surgeries.

He also disputed claims of excessive charging, saying a mentor had once advised him to charge what you think you deserve. “I haven’t really wanted this to be known, but I’ll tell you now…more than half my patients I don’t charge,” he told Bouris.

The 65-year-old also said that now he was at the end of his career he wants people to know “I didn’t charge police officers, fellow doctors, nurses, friends of friends, pensioners who couldn’t afford it.”

Rebecca Anderson was ‘cancelled’ as a patient by Charlie Teo.Credit: 60 Minutes

The Herald has previously reported that Rebecca Anderson, a nurse at his own hospital, was facing in excess of $30,000 for her operation in 2009. When she approached Teo in a hospital corridor to discuss her fears about the surgery, Teo fired her as a patient. “I don’t speak to anyone, why should I speak to you? You’re nothing special.” He then told her she had “bad karma” and he was cancelling her surgery.

“Dr Teo strode down the corridor yelling over his shoulder, ‘Cancelled. Surgery’s cancelled’, and that was the last I heard from him,” Anderson said.

Asked by Bouris whether he intended to leave Australia to practice overseas, Teo said that after allegations were raised, the Singapore Medical Council had put his licence on hold, as had the USA.

He said that due to the high cost of his malpractice insurance, his operations in Spain were only as an observer guiding other neurosurgeons through the surgery. However, he told Bouris that he was optimistic about future operations overseas as there were “a few countries … trying to seduce me to operate there.”

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