“The agenda is to destroy Charlie Teo”: Final hit ahead of hearing
Appearing on a podcast with businessman and former TV host Mark Bouris, famed neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has lashed out against the recent allegations made against him of unprofessional conduct, saying that such claims are driven by professional jealousy, and are largely designed to take him down and to prevent the rise of any good, young “aggressive” neurosurgeons.
Teo is set to face an additional disciplinary hearing by the Health Care Complaints Commission, and did not hold back in his assessment of the attacks on him and his career to date.
“It’s got nothing to do with fairness, what’s right or wrong,” he said to podcast host Bouris. “It’s all got to do with people’s agendas. And the agenda is to destroy Charlie Teo.”
“I know that I’ve got this skill … I take out tumours that no one else can take out. And all the surgeons around the world that watch me are just absolutely amazed by it. So when I operate in other countries, I get four or five or 10 or 20 neurosurgeons watching it, and they just are blown away by it.”
Teo also told Bouris that the worst thing about being “subjected to all this vexatious vilification by colleagues” is that it sends a message to “all those good, young, aggressive neurosurgeons” that “if you try and do what Charlie does, this is what’s going to happen to you.”
He alleged that one of the doctors complaining about him is “in competition with me.” The surgeon also claimed that he was “being judged by your enemies … it’s totally stacked”.
Teo also took aim at sections of the press for publishing articles and airing shows that called his practice and motives into question.
Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program in particular interviewed several of Dr Teo’s past patients, one of whom spoke about the "false hope" given to his family when dealing with the surgeon.
The program claimed that Teo had charged families huge sums of money for ultimately futile operations. While the HCCC was investigating those initial complaints, Teo’s brain stem surgeries were deemed a possible public health and safety risk. After an urgent hearing of the NSW Medical Council in August 2021, conditions were placed on Teo’s ability to practice.
Teo also told Bouris on his podcast that medical authorities “can always hide behind this feigned altruism or public safety concept” and that the real reason he could no longer operate in Australia was that his colleagues were resentful of his ability to “take out tumours that other people have called inoperable”.
Teo complained that just because he has had some bad surgical outcomes, these shouldn’t negate thousands of other successful surgeries.
Teo also rejected the claims of overcharging patients, saying a mentor had once advised him to charge what you think you deserve. “I haven’t really wanted this to be known, but I’ll tell you now…more than half my patients I don’t charge,” he told Bouris.
Teo also said that as he nears the end of his professional medical career he wanted people to know that he “didn’t charge police officers, fellow doctors, nurses, friends of friends, pensioners who couldn’t afford it.”
“There are some countries in the world that want me,” continued Teo on the podcast. “But as soon as [they] find out that I'm operating in a particular country, they go and try and destroy my reputation there as well.
“I'm not going to say anything at this stage, but a few countries have been trying to seduce me to operate there.
“So I'm hopefully going to be able to operate in some other countries.”
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