A retired doctor has been banned from practice over racist comments towards Australia's first Indigenous eye surgeon as well as a child patient.
The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal found the medical practitioner, whose name has been suppressed, engaged in professional misconduct after making offensive comments about Indigenous Australians.
"This conduct is unbecoming of a medical practitioner and, in our view, has the potential to bring the medical profession into disrepute," the tribunal found.
In one instance, a couple brought their four-year-old to his practice.
The doctor questioned the child's heritage and refused the parents access to an Indigenous pharmaceutical benefits scheme.
He also sent a racist email to Yuggera, Warangoo and Wiradjuri ophthalmologist Kris Rallah-Baker, who he did not know and had never met.
His email disputed the surgeon's heritage and accused them of using their identity to take advantage of First Nations programs.
When the health regulator opened an investigation into the incident, the doctor said the agency's board was "a pack of f***wits" and questioned the legitimacy of Dr Rallah-Baker's complaint.
He continued his tirade over the next few days, calling the watchdog "a Gestapo" and making more discriminatory remarks towards the eye specialist.
As the tribunal put together its findings, Dr Rallah-Baker specifically requested his name be included.
"It was important for me that this outcome wasn't faceless, for people to see they won't be brought down if they complain about racism and if they need to reach out they can," he said in a statement on Thursday.
In its final decision, the tribunal ruled the doctor be disqualified for 12 months from registering as a medical practitioner and recommended restrictions be put in place should he even re-apply.
"We find the respondent's comments in the email he forwarded to Dr Rallah-Baker treated (him) less favourably than other persons because of his racial background," the tribunal said.
The doctor resigned in August 2022 and surrendered his registration a year later.
He has since apologised to the regulator's employee and Dr Rallah-Baker.
But the tribunal said he had not shown genuine remorse, with a supplementary report describing him as having a "personality with cognitive rigidity and a difficulty in understanding others' emotional responses to his actions".
Health regulator boss Martin Fletcher said it was a landmark outcome that supported efforts to eliminate racism from health care.
"These reforms are underpinned by undisputed evidence that racism in all its forms - systemic, institutional and interpersonal - is harmful."
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