George Hatoum

Introduction

George Hatoum is an Australian general practitioner who worked at Victoria Tower Medical in Burwood, Sydney, and whose medical registration was cancelled after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that on 13 and 14 October 2022 he failed to appropriately inform a patient about the results of a CT scan and failed to act on them, and that on 14 October 2022 he made inappropriate comments and acted inappropriately toward a patient during a consultation. The Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted the complaint. The Tribunal found the complaints proven in its Stage 1 decision of 23 July 2025 and, in Stage 2 protective orders imposed on 18 December 2025, cancelled Hatoum’s registration with a one-year non-review period.

Background Information

Hatoum practised at Victoria Tower Medical, a general practice in Burwood. The diagnostic chain in general practice runs entirely through the GP: a scan is performed, a radiologist reports it, and the report’s findings reach the patient only if the GP reads the report, tells the patient what it says and acts on it. A failure at that link can silently remove the follow-up on which serious diagnoses depend — which is why failure to communicate or act on results is treated by regulators as patient-safety misconduct, not administrative lapse. The complaint covered two consecutive days of consultations in October 2022 and was prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission before the Tribunal.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Tribunal findings. The findings below are the formal adjudications of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a case prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission. They were found proven in the Tribunal’s Stage 1 decision of 23 July 2025. The sources report no criminal proceedings arising from the conduct.

It was alleged that on 13 October 2022 and 14 October 2022, while working at Victoria Tower Medical in Burwood, Dr Hatoum failed to appropriately inform a patient about the results of a CT scan and failed to act on the results. It was also alleged that on 14 October 2022 he made inappropriate comments and acted inappropriately toward a patient during a consultation. In its Stage 1 decision of 23 July 2025 the Tribunal found the complaints proven and found Dr Hatoum guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct, publishing the decision through NSW Caselaw. The Tribunal then convened the protective stage, and in its orders of 18 December 2025 cancelled Dr Hatoum’s registration and imposed a one-year non-review period — the earliest he could seek review being December 2026.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Health Care Complaints Commission published its media release announcing the cancellation on 14 January 2026, just under a month after the Stage 2 orders. The two limbs of the case stand on different grounds — the scan failures go to clinical safety and the consultation conduct to the boundary between doctor and patient — and the Tribunal’s path to cancellation rather than a conditions-based sanction reflects their combination: a practitioner who both fails a diagnostic duty and conducts himself inappropriately in the consulting room presents a protective problem a reprimand does not answer. The release names no appeal and no public statement from Hatoum, and does not report that the missed scan results resulted in a documented injury.

Current Status

Hatoum’s medical registration is cancelled, with the one-year non-review period running from the 18 December 2025 orders. He cannot practise as a doctor in Australia while unregistered; the non-review period runs to December 2026, and any return would require the Tribunal to be satisfied he is fit to practise after the Stage 1 findings. Both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 decisions are published through NSW Caselaw. The sources report no public statement from Hatoum and no appeal against the findings or the cancellation. The patients involved are not named in any published material.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A general practice career ended over two days of consultations in October 2022 — the scan results never properly conveyed or acted on, and the comments and conduct in the room the next day — adjudicated three years later by findings that removed him from the register rather than annotating it. The case is the Commission’s standing answer to the assumption that only dramatic misconduct ends a medical career: the diagnostic chain broken at its human link, combined with consulting-room impropriety, is sufficient. His cancellation joins the Commission’s early-2026 run of published NSW medical cancellations.

Sources

• NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, “Dr George Hatoum – Medical Practitioner – Cancellation for unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct,” 14 January 2026 — source