A Canberra GP must be chaperoned when treating female patients or patients under 18 while an accusation of inappropriate behaviour is investigated, a tribunal has ordered.
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The chaperone order overturns an earlier decision by the Medical Board of Australia that banned Dr Mohamad Helmy from treating female or young patients, because the ban was "unduly restrictive".
Dr Helmy had faced allegations from three female patients of inappropriate sexual and physical behaviour, the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal said in its decision delivered last week.
He has denied any impropriety on his part.
The most recent and only allegation still being investigated came in March this year, from a patient who alleged he had been "grooming her" and was physically inappropriate with her during a consultation.
He has denied the allegations, but he says the patient hugged him on one occasion and he responded by kissing her on the cheek.
Another allegation, from 2015, alleged Dr Helmy had acted inappropriately over three years. The Medical Board referred the matter to the AFP, but an investigation was closed in April without charge. The tribunal heard the woman had said she didn't have the strength to go ahead to "fight it in court".
A third allegation, from 2012, was also closed without charge after the patient didn't respond to police inquiries. The Medical Board has also indicated its investigation into this one is unlikely to progress further.
The tribunal said Dr Helmy "strenuously denied" the allegations in the 2013 and 2015 complaints, and there were two third-party witnesses who dispute part of the allegations made by one patient.
The health practitioner regulation agency has not yet completed its investigation into the latest and ongoing complaint, which it expects to finalise in October.
The matter came before the ACAT at a hearing on July 5 after Dr Helmy appealed the Medical Board's order he not treat female or under-18 patients.
He had stopped practising after the conditions were imposed, and went into early retirement. But the tribunal heard he wanted to practice again if the conditions were lifted.
His appeal was successful, and the tribunal changed the conditions to order Dr Helmy treat female and young patients only in the company of a board-approved chaperone.
And while the ban on treating those young patients was unduly restrictive, the tribunal said, a requirement he be chaperoned would achieve the same protective measures.
While noting that Dr Helmy had a previously unblemished career of more than 30 years when working in a hospital environment, the tribunal said: "Since entering general practice the practitioner has been the subject of three separate complaints regarding sexual impropriety involving female patients.
"Even if it is the case that the incidents did not occur as alleged, the tribunal is concerned that the practitioner has on his own account behaved inappropriately ... at a time when he knew he was under investigation in relation to serious allegations of sexual impropriety."
