Colac GP agrees to stop practising medicine, weeks after alleged anti-vaxxers pour in for exemptions

A controversial Colac GP who had a crowd of alleged anti-vaxxers at his clinic seeking Covid jab exemptions has agreed to quit medicine.

A Colac GP has agreed to stop practising medicine, just weeks after police were forced to disperse a crowd of alleged anti-vaxxers who had flocked to his clinic following reports he was handing out vaccine exemptions.

Elliminyt GP Dr Denes Borsos’ Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and Medical Board of Australia registration was last week updated, revealing the doctor had agreed to quit.

“I, Dr Denes Borsos, undertake not to practice as a medical practitioner.” the registration noted. “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.”

Alleged anti-vaxxers descended on the Colac clinic last month to gain vaccine exemptions.

AHPRA and the Medical Board of Australia can seek an undertaking from a GP “to limit the practitioner’s practice in some way if this is necessary to protect the public”, according to the register of practitioners.

An AHPRA spokesman on Tuesday said the body could not provide further information regarding Dr Borsos, after last month warning GPs issuing unjustified Covid-19 vaccination exemptions would risk having their registrations suspended or cancelled.

“We regulate the conduct, health and performance of individual registered health practitioners,” the spokesman said. “We cannot comment further at this time.”

Dr Borsos’s booking website was recently updated with a note reading “sorry … closed till further notice … all appointments null and void” and “thank you for the support over the years”.

Dr Borsos did not respond to a request for comment from the Geelong Advertiser.

Police soon flocked to the Colac GP’s clinic to disperse the crowds.

The Colac GP raised the ire of the public last month when police were called to his practice after huge crowds had travelled there for Covid-19 vaccine exemptions.

His booking website at the time included the all-capitalised note “SORRY!!! NO MORE JAB EXEMPTIONS, HELP YOURSELVES THE BEST YOU CAN”.

A video shared to social media 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 man claimed to have waited in line for more than four hours, before police arrived and spoke to the doctor, who he claims then told waiting patients he would need to stop.

A patient at Dr Borsos’ practice on the day – who asked to remain anonymous – said they arrived to find cars parked for hundreds of metres on both sides of the road, and a line of people stretching from the practice doors to the street with some saying they were there for vaccine exemptions.

“Sitting in the room, no one had a mask on. There were at least 20 in the room, and I couldn’t tell you how many were outside, they were down the huge driveway right out to the road, lined up. There were probably about a hundred people there,” the patient said.

“I’m really, really p---ed off. I’ve done the right thing for 18 months and I sat in a room with people who don’t give a sh-t.

“These weren’t local people either, they’ve come from God knows where, as far as Melbourne I heard one person say.”

Originally published as Colac GP agrees to stop practising medicine, weeks after alleged anti-vaxxers pour in for exemptions