Complaint over Whaleoil GP’s views

An Auckland doctor has lodged a complaint about a West Auckland urgent care practitioner’s posts on the Whaleoil blog.

Jim McVeagh, who works at Westgate Medical Centre, said he was behind the online profile ‘‘MacDoctor’’. He was born in Britain and trained in South Africa.

Among the comments highlighted by the complainant were one in which MacDoctor said every lesbian he had met had been sexually abused, as well as most of the homosexual men – and he said most gay men also had a domineering mother. ‘‘The scientific evidence does not favour genetics as a factor.’’

In another post, he said transgenderism was a ‘‘progressive toy’’ and those he had treated were confused and anxious. ‘‘The drive to find new transgenders is pushed entirely by the rabid left.’’

He joked about Norway giving refugee status to cannibals, and, after the Manchester bombing, said Muslim taxi drivers and primary school teachers were to blame for Islamic terrorism.

‘‘As the German experience with the Nazis showed, perfectly nice people who say and do nothing are complicit in the atrocities of the monsters.’’

The UK government needed a more muscular response to the problem of Islamic terrorism, he said. ‘‘Stop all Muslim immigration until you are satisfied you have adequate ways of telling the genuine from the jihadi flakes.’’

McVeagh said his opinions were ‘‘just that, opinions’’. ‘‘They are, I think, well argued and reasonable in the main. I assume that the ‘complaint’ is from someone who disagrees with me.

‘‘That is fine, but they would be better employed telling me why they think I am wrong, rather than complaining about it. I am not concerned about backlash because none of my opinions are inflammatory, though they may be offensive to some.’’

He said the comments highlighted were made a couple of years ago. The comment about Islamic terrorism was what should be done in response to Manchester, not what needed to happen in New Zealand.

‘‘The other two posts are general observations from my practice and reflect my experience. I treat my gay and transsexual patients with empathy and respect but I hold no love for people who use them to drive their own agendas ... My opinions are mine and do not represent my place of work in any way, of course.’’

But the doctor who complained to the Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care said it was inappropriate for medical professionals to make such comments in a public forum.

He said McVeagh’s patients should know that he held such views. A complaint process has begun.