Colac doctor Denes Borsos hands out 100s of unwarranted Covid exemptions: tribunal

A Colac doctor accused of dishing out dubious COVID-19 vaccine exemptions has failed to shut down a tribunal probe. Here is why.

Police in Colac in 2021 called to disperse a crowd at Dr Borsos’ clinic.

A doctor who handed out hundreds of unwarranted COVID-19 exemptions at the peak of the pandemic has been unable to dismiss fact-finding proceedings against him.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) refused to dismiss a finding of fact hearing brought forward by the Medical Board of Australia on May 13, with the tribunal’s written reasons and order issued on July 15.

Dr Denes Borsos.

It found that, between July and October 2021, Colac doctor Denes Borsos wrote hundreds of unwarranted exemption certificates for vaccines and face masks.

According to the findings, between October 6 and 13 2021, Dr Borsos handed out 189 COVID-19 vaccine certificates.

A day later, on October 14, COVID-19 would claim the lives of11 Victorians.

The state was over two months into its sixth and final lockdown at the time.

The tribunal found Dr Borsos had contravened public health directions and failed to undertake the required clinical assessment of the patients in order to be certain there was a clinical justification for issuing the exemption.

The proceedings found, between July 7 and October 13 of the same year, Dr Borsos issued 122 exemptions from wearing masks.

The Medical Board of Australia suspended Dr Borsos in November 2021.

“I, Dr Denes Borsos, undertake not to practice as a medical practitioner.” he said in a statement in which he agreed to quit at the time.

“For the purposes of this undertaking, ‘practice’ is defined as any role, whether remunerated or not, in which the individual uses their skills and knowledge as a medical practitioner in their profession”

The Geelong Advertiser reported in 2021 that his booking website in October included the all-capitalised note: “Sorry!!! No more jab exemptions, help yourselves the best you can.”

Police were called after huge crowds ravelled to his Colac practice to receive exemptions.

A video shared to social media at the time titled “The Rebel Country Doctor” included an interview with a man claiming to have attended the Colac GP’s practice to obtain a vaccination exemption.

The anonymous man described what felt like “a secret mission” taking his family to the clinic where about 50 people had already lined up by 9.30am.

“This is like being part of the French resistance, you know,” he said.

“You felt the community. You felt like yes we are all here, we’ve all got this in common and we’re doing this to survive.

“The fact that we had a doctor, who was giving it out to us, was like unbelievable.”

The matter is listed for an administrative mention on August 14.

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Originally published as Colac doctor Denes Borsos hands out 100s of unwarranted Covid exemptions: tribunal