After financial woes, mushroom doctor closes his country practice

Two and a half years after doctor Chris Webster alerted police to triple murderer Erin Patterson, financial turmoil has forced the closure of his country practice, he says.

But – after a circus of media coverage, controversy and punishment by the medical regulator – he is as loyal as ever to his community and has vowed to “go it alone”.

Doctor Chris Webster inside his Leongatha clinic. Jason South

Leongatha Healthcare – a longtime GP clinic serving the small South Gippsland town, which became the centre of the Patterson saga – closed its Koonwarra Road doors this week as its lease ran out, Webster confirmed to The Age.

However, he maintains ownership of the business with his wife and plans to reopen a practice as its sole doctor in another building in town within weeks.

Webster, who was working as a visiting medical officer at Leongatha Hospital when Patterson and her victims turned up there in 2023, said the decision was difficult but a “financial necessity”.

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In September, he was punished by the medical regulator after he described Patterson in a Herald Sun report as a “crazy bitch” and a “disturbed sociopathic nut bag”, prompting intense backlash.

He later defended the comments, telling The Age it was his earnest reaction, as a key witness in the triple-murder case, to the shocking realisation of Patterson’s guilt.

“I was freaking out. I was completely freaking out,” Webster said at the time.

“Those thoughts and words were completely private; they were never documented, they were never broadcast until after the verdict.”

On Saturday, Webster said it was no longer viable to run his clinic at large scale, after the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners stripped him of his right to supervise other doctors.

The punishment meant some doctors at his clinic had to reduce their working hours, rendering consultation rooms useless, Webster said. Leongatha Healthcare’s website lists 19 tenant doctors at the practice, which is understood to have several hundred patients.

“The decision had an immediate effect and obviously a devastating long-term effect,” Webster said.

The college could not comment on Webster due to its privacy policy. However, according to supervision guidelines, general practitioners with conditions on their medical registration are unable to supervise other GPs in training.

Webster ultimately blames the Medical Board of Australia, which in September imposed conditions on his registration, demanding that he complete one-on-one professional and ethics training for a minimum of eight hours and undertake mentoring with a minimum of five one-hour sessions a month.

Webster spoke with Patterson when she arrived at Leongatha Hospital complaining of gastro-like symptoms on July 31, 2023, and was flabbergasted when she discharged herself after barely five minutes of medical attention.

Gravely concerned, he phoned Triple Zero and requested a police check on her wellbeing, a crucial point that would come to define the next two years of his life, and the first time emergency services would hear about the deadly lunch that would eventually claim the lives of three people.

The events that followed that fateful 24-hour hospital shift had been tough to handle, Webster said on Saturday. But, with several suitable leasing options in town, he feels like “the universe is saying it will be OK”.

“The thing that has been my protection and that has paved the way for me to continue has been the community,” Webster said. “When I told the pizza shop owner yesterday, there were already three opportunities [for local leases].”

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All staff at the clinic would receive their entitlements, and existing patients were informed of the clinic’s closure after the business reached a “critical” point on Monday, Webster said. “I have been working feverishly to get everything lined up,” he said.

He expected to be practising again in as few as three weeks.

Patterson was sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 33 years for the murders of Heather Wilkinson and Don and Gail Patterson, and the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson.

With Ashleigh McMillan and Marta Pascual Juanola

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