By Cassandra Morgan, AAP
A Melbourne chiropractor who treated patients while he was unregistered and uninsured has been banned from practising for more than two years.
The chiropractor, who worked at clinics at Ringwood and Ferntree Gully in the city’s east, repeatedly lied to health authorities after he was first refused registration in 2014.
He claimed he made a “stupid mistake” when he treated patients while unregistered for a few weeks, but in fact, he worked unregistered for more than two months in 2014.
In January 2015, he regained his registration under strict conditions including that he only work at a practice when another practitioner was present.
The chiropractor, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on to practice at Ringwood for several months without another chiropractor.
His registration lapsed and he worked unregistered and uninsured from May 2016 to September 2016.
The chiropractor was again knocked back from registering in mid-2016 before health officials ultimately agreed he could return to work under new conditions, but he still could not practice alone.
He continued to breach his conditions at Ringwood for more than a year, and at the Ferntree Gully practice for more than three and a half years.
Health officials inspected the Ferntree Gully clinic in December 2018. The chiropractor lied and told them he only worked when another practitioner was around, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found.
He blamed stealing almost $4000 from his colleague over a period of about five months on “one stupid night out” and showed a blatant disregard for his registration conditions.
The chiropractor used the same tactics at the tribunal that he had been deploying since 2014, tribunal members said.
“Where he could, he downplayed his conduct and attempted to shift the blame to others,” they said.
“When he could not use these strategies, he apologised for his conduct and said he could not ex plain why he did it.”
The tribunal ordered that the chiropractor’s registration be cancelled.
He is banned from re-applying for registration for two years and three months.
