NEWS 15
ausdoc. com. au 31 OCTOBER 2025
NEWS 15
AHPRA sanctions GP over mushroom murder comments
Dr Chris Webster called Erin Patterson a‘ crazy bitch’.
Carmel Sparke THE GP who testified at Erin Patterson’ s triple murder trial is standing by his colourful post-trial comments despite being ordered to complete eight hours of education on professionalism.
Dr Chris Webster, who briefly treated Patterson in hospital, gave several interviews after she was found guilty of killing three people and attempting to kill a fourth with death cap mushrooms cooked into a beef Wellington.
In one interview, he called Patterson a“ crazy bitch” and a“ disturbed sociopathic nutbag”, which led several social media users to threaten to report him to AHPRA. In September, AHPRA placed conditions on Dr Webster’ s registration.
These included mandatory oneon-one education covering professionalism, ethics, communication, confidentiality, social media and the Medical Board of Australia’ s Code of Conduct, lasting at least eight hours overall. After completing the education, he must complete monthly onehour mentoring sessions for five months.
The GP, from Leongatha in south-east Victoria, told Australian Doctor he had accepted the conditions despite feeling they were onerous and would take him away from his patients.
He said AHPRA told him it had received multiple complaints that it had bundled into one.
“ The single complaint was regarding my professionalism, specifically
Dr Chris Webster. e
‘ It was about my social performance.’
my use of expletives, and also the way that I went about my social media,” Dr Webster said.
“ It said this was inappropriate and unacceptable, and I accepted the conditions.”
He said it had nothing to do with his clinical practice or his interactions with Patterson, whom he saw at Leongatha Hospital in July 2023 when she presented with gastroenteritis symptoms.
At the time, he had already seen two of Patterson’ s victims. She told him she was the cook and then quickly left, prompting him to call triple zero about a potential mushroom poisoning.
“ AHPRA could not come at me for any medical malpractice or malfeasance,” he said.
NEWSPIX
Erin Patterson.
NEWSPIX
“ It was about my social performance.”
He said the bundled AHPRA complaint also covered videos he had posted on social media.
“ When the nasty, unrelenting, vicious campaign of online hatred began, I responded to that with TikTok videos that AHPRA ruled were unprofessional,” he said.
“ I think AHPRA has a bit of a 1950s view of what a doctor should be, rather than a more modern, integrated concept of an emotional being who does his best to relieve suffering and bring comfort to the patients that he serves.
“ It is not an easy job, and when that job gets affected by a triple murder trial, it is going to cause intense emotions.” Asked whether he regretted his comments, he said:“ No. I would do it all again.
“ I am not deluded and thinking that I did not cause a stir.
“ In the grand picture, I think it is probably something that could have been dealt with via an official caution.
“ But the conditions are on AHPRA’ s public register because I have accepted them.
“ I cannot jump up and down and whinge too much. I can comment that they are a bit onerous.”
He said, if the only mentor he could find was in Melbourne, a two-hour drive away, the conditions could force him to miss a whole day of practice each month.
“ I will, unfortunately, reschedule patients if I have to, to ensure I can comply with the conditions,” he said.
“ Everybody is relieved that I will be able to continue practising, but people find it difficult enough to get an appointment with me at the moment, so to have decreased availability is not a desirable outcome in terms of the conditions.
“ But it is what it is. I will do my utmost to comply with it.”
He said he had been subject to two previous AHPRA notifications: one related to his communication and another was when he had acted as a whistleblower but“ mishandled” the situation, he said.
Vinegar study retracted
Ciara Seccombe A WIDELY publicised study stating drinking apple cider vinegar could help achieve significant weight loss has been retracted by the BMJ Group.
Published last year in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, the findings suggested that drinking diluted apple cider vinegar resulted in an average weight reduction of 7-7.4kg in 12 weeks.
The paper quickly drew criticism from academics.
It was pointed out that, if the study’ s results were accurate, apple cider vinegar would be as effective as GLP-1 receptor agonist medications for weight loss with“ virtually unprecedented” economic and public health impacts.
The publisher began a post-publication review using independent statisticians to examine the data, who found they could not replicate the results the researchers had reported and found“ irregularities in the dataset”.
The authors of the study said the discrepancies were honest mistakes and agreed with the decision to retract the paper.
BMJ Nutr Prev Health 2024; 12 Mar.
Retraction: bit. ly / 4pQnQhJ
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