Prolific circumcision doctor banned from performing the surgery

One of Victoria’s most prolific circumcision doctors has been banned from performing the procedure by Australia’s healthcare watchdog.

The Medical Board of Australia took the emergency measure against Melbourne doctor Hershel Goldman earlier this month, placing a series of conditions on his registration. 

Dr Hershel Goldman.

“The practitioner must not perform circumcisions,” reads a note from the Medical Board of Australia on Dr Goldman’s listing on the public register of practitioners.

Goldman, who previously told The Age he had performed 400 circumcisions a year, is appealing against the restrictions at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which heard the matter on Thursday. The tribunal reserved its decision.

A suppression order has been issued to seal the tribunal’s file and protect the identities of patients, notifiers and witnesses.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and National Boards said confidentiality laws prevented it from commenting on individual cases other than what was on the public record.

“Conditions were placed on Dr Goldman’s registration on 4 April 2024 limiting his practice,” she said.

Goldman, who is in his early 60s, declined to comment when contacted by The Age on Friday afternoon.

He runs the Melbourne Circumcision Centre, which operates out of medical clinics in Noble Park, in Melbourne’s south-east and Cairnlea, in the north-west. He has also performed the procedure in private homes.

Circumcision involves the surgical removal of foreskin from the penis and is often performed for religious or cultural reasons.

The Melbourne Circumcision Centre website describes Goldman as a GP with more than 30 years’ experience in performing neonatal circumcisions for medical and ritual reasons. It states that he does not perform the procedure on patients over four months old.

In an article in The Age in 2004, Goldman described himself as mohel, which is a person who performs the Jewish rite of circumcision when a boy is eight days old.

The doctor said he was increasingly performing the surgical procedure for other boys as well.

“About five years ago, I was doing mostly Jewish boys. Nobody else was interested in circumcision,” he said.

“But, just in the last 12 months, I’ve been doing more and more non-religious circumcisions. ... I’m doing Christians, Muslims, everyone. I don’t discriminate, I’m an equal-opportunity mohel.”

Goldman may also be required to provide the national health regulator with monthly reports, rosters and payslips from senior staff at each place where he works.

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