A Melbourne doctor who posted homophobic and anti-vaccination content to social media, and described hospitals as “death chambers,” has had his medical registration cancelled until February.
The Victorian civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat) found the posts from general practitioner Dr Michael Ellis had “the potential to influence the choices made by members of the public as to their healthcare” and “denigrated or demeaned groups within society”.
The posts between October 2017 and April 2020 were made by Ellis on public Facebook pages and included the comments “Hospitals are death chambers … If lucky you will survive”; that “the political agenda is forcing young children to become LGBT”; and that reception staff at the clinic where he worked were “nazis”.
Vcat found his posts also made demeaning references to people of Islamic faith and Chinese heritage. It said the posts expressed and encouraged views regarding vaccinations, chemotherapy and treatment for Covid-19 that were in conflict with accepted medical practice and were disparaging of other health practitioners and health services, including his place of work and colleagues.
“The views that Mr Ellis expresses in his posts about the lesbian, gay and transgender communities, Muslims and people of Chinese heritage are quite abhorrent,” the Vcat decision said.
The tribunal also found Ellis’s communications with patients during his medical practice between December 2018 and October 2019 were inappropriate, discourteous and failed to provide patient confidentiality.
Ellis admitted to the posts and that his conduct was inconsistent with medical conduct guidelines, and therefore he should be deregistered for one year.
However, he disagreed with being deregistered until 2025, saying that because he had already been suspended from practising once his case was referred to Vcat by medical regulators in 2021, his penalty should be backdated to commence on 1 November 2023.
This would allow Ellis to seek re-registration before the end of 2024.
Vcat rejected the proposal.
“To his credit, Mr Ellis has deleted the offensive posts from social media and there is no suggestion that he has made any similar posts since that time,” Vcat found.
“While this is positive, it does not – of itself – provide us with clarity as to his insight and remorse concerning the underlying subject matter of those posts or allow us to form an accurate picture of the likelihood that he might seek to disseminate those kinds of views in the future, if (and when) he is allowed to return to practice (whether or not on social media).”
Vcat was not satisfied Ellis had developed sufficient insight and remorse.
“The 12-month period of disqualification proposed by the board is the minimum necessary to satisfy the need for specific and general deterrence and maintain the reputation of the profession,” Vcat found, noting under the order Ellis could apply to return to practice early in 2025.
In a statement on Thursday, the Medical Board of Australia’s chair, Dr Anne Tonkin, said professional standards for doctors aim to keep patients safe.
“Our code of conduct is very clear about the importance of dignity and respect in medical practice,” she said.
“In this case, there was a big gap between the standards we expect and this doctor’s social media activity and his conduct with some patients. We are pleased the tribunal agrees that this gap is not acceptable.”
