A QUEENSLAND judge has barred disgraced Bundaberg surgeon Jayant PATEL from practising medicine in Australia, highlighting his lack of integrity, honesty and trustworthiness.

Dr PATEL was today permanently banned from registration as a health professional in the country by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) brought disciplinary action against him on nine grounds, including four related to false and misleading material being used in his 2003 registration application.

The remaining five grounds involved medical procedures – four which were performed despite a “clinically inappropriate increased level of risk to the patient”.

The tribunal found all nine grounds were warranted.

The MBA was not told that in 2000, US health authorities in Oregon had banned Dr PATEL from performing pancreatic and liver surgeries and forced him to obtain second opinions before complicated operations.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren said Dr PATEL appeared undeterred by his previous disciplinary experiences.

“These matters strike at the very heart of the system of registration by which it is intended that only those truly suitable and competent to do so are permitted to practise in health professions,” he said.

“One could have little, if any, confidence that he would ever in the future possess the qualities of integrity, honesty and trustworthiness so essential for the practice of medicine.”

Judge Horneman-Wren found Dr PATEL’s “apparently cavalier preparedness to disregard … the potential serious consequences of his fraud upon others” was troubling.

He noted that some of the surgeries, along with their “tragic consequences”, would not have eventuated if Dr PATEL sought second opinions.

The MBA said the orders will have far-reaching repercussions.

“This serious adverse finding will now be on the public record and accessible to all international medical regulators to whom Dr PATEL may apply for registration,” it said in a statement.

“The board persisted with disciplinary action to protect the public, manage risk to patients and uphold the high standards of medical profession the medical profession.”

Dr PATEL moved back to Oregon in 2013 after he was handed a two-year suspended sentence for fraudulently gaining employment in Queensland.

His criminal convictions for three counts of manslaughter and one of grievous bodily harm were overturned on appeal earlier that year.

Dr PATEL, ordered to pay the MBA’s legal costs, did not return to Australia to attend Friday’s hearing.