'Real risk': doctor fails in appeal against medical ban

An appeals tribunal found doctor John Barry Myers had a "wholly unacceptable regulatory history". (Julian Smith/AAP PHOTOS)

A former doctor has failed to overturn his ban on practising medicine, 10 years after first being suspended for alleged misconduct involving patients.

John Barry Myers was not a "fit and proper person to hold general registration", the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has ruled.

The tribunal was considering an appeal by Myers against a Medical Board of Australia decision to deny his bid to work again as a doctor.

The board's decision followed his disqualification in two state jurisdictions over misconduct allegations and he has not practised since June 2012.

Myers has "a wholly unacceptable regulatory history, leading to the cancellation of his registration" in 2014 with no persuasive evidence of reform since, the tribunals' deputy president Ian Proctor wrote in findings released on Thursday.

"He has not demonstrated that his registration will contribute to the protection of the health and safety of the public.

"Rather, there is real risk that if he was re-registered he would return to his long-standing pattern of unacceptable dealings with patients."

Myers had separately been disqualified from practising in Victoria and Western Australia, over a number of complaints and allegations about his conduct.

An alleged inappropriate relationship with a patient in Victoria, who claimed he had left her with "Stockholm syndrome", led state authorities to cancel his registration in 2013.

Myers was also disqualified from practising in WA, where the State Administrative Tribunal fined him $10,000 and banned him from re-applying for five years.

That ban was based on allegations, which Myers denied, that he fondled the breasts of a psychiatric patient without consent and on another occasion asked her to perform a sex act on him.

In his bid to overturn his rejection by the Medical Board of Australia, Myers argued he was fit and proper to be registered because he had for "decades been a pioneer" championing the rights of patients.

He claimed to make significant contributions to medical science.

But Mr Proctor downplayed Myers' claims of substantial contributions to medical science and literature, given he had provided no more than vague references to academic journals and conferences.

Myers ran for election in Victoria in 2014 with a campaign centred on removing the Medical Board, which he told Leader Newspapers was "biased and/or corrupt" after several adverse findings against him.

He also ran as an independent for the seat of Melbourne Ports in the 2016 federal election.

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