Perth chiropractor banned from practising until end of 2026 after inappropriately ‘massaging’ patient’s breast

A Perth chiropractor has been banned from practising until the end of 2026 after inappropriately “massaging” a patient’s breast “for a few minutes”. The State Administrative Tribunal this week revealed the male chiropractor, referred to only as AB for legal reasons, had “behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct” after the Chiropractic Board of Australia took the matter to tribunal. AB had been treating the female patient for her back, neck and shoulders for about two months in 2013 when the incident unfolded. During a consultation on October 31, 2013, AB asked his patient to lay face down on a treatment bed to massage her back and neck. He told the patient her pectoral muscles were tight and needed stretching, and asked her to sit on the edge of the bed. AB moved to stand behind her and pressed his body into her back, before moving his right hand under her shirt and over the top of her bra. “He massaged the pectoral muscle and out area of the patient’s breast with his fingers,” the SAT findings said. The chiropractor removed his right hand, before putting his other hand beneath her bra and “massaging” her right breast “for a few minutes”. “He held the palm of his hand on the patient’s right breast and used his fingers to massage the breast and the pectoral muscle,” the ruling read. AB did not contest the allegations but said he did not remember ever treating the patient. The SAT ruling also revealed the chiropractor had failed to keep clinical records of his consults with the patient. “There were no clinical records for the consultation with the patient on October 31,” the findings said. “For the initial consultation with the patient on August 30, there was no record of relevant diagnosis, clinical impressions, working diagnosis, a proposed management plan ... and appropriate screening. “For subsequent consultations with the patients, the clinical records ... did not contain the reasons for care or consultation ... (and) did not evidence physical examinations having been performed or other objective findings.” AB admitted the patient’s records had not been kept, but in mitigation, said a number of recent computer and server outages could have been responsible for deleting the records. AB was reprimanded and has been disqualified from applying for a health practitioner registration until December 2026. He has also been ordered to pay $20,000 towards the chiropractic board’s legal costs. Sexual Assault Resource Centre 1800 199 888