Dr. Hilbert Seeger

On this page we expose shonks, schemes and rip-offs of the complementary health industry. 

If you had any bad experience with these people, please contact us and we help you to get justice.

Shonks: David Woolcott

Schemes: Complementary    Medicine Association           (You guessed it!  -  he is a   co-founding member of it!)

1. David Woolcott, 10 Railway Street, Cottesloe WA 6011   (Newsletter Picture!)

This man dropped out of school aged 12 and joined a sheep shearer gang. No formal education whatsoever but he calls himself "Australia's leading naturopath". Made possible by the "grandfather clause" (Office of Health Review of WA). So authorities turn a blind eye and patients and honest practitioners who speak out against him get the stand over treatment.   

He brags to be the co-founder of the Complementary Medical Association that was purely set up to give people without any formal education some professional status in the health industry.

How he and his association operate is best described in the following letter from a qualified naturopath (BHSc):

Dear Dr Seeger,

 I was recently forwarded your email re David Woolcott. It was an amazing coincidence, as I have recently seen a patient who feels she is in damage control since seeing this man. Without breaching patient confidentiality, I would like to share with you what his outcomes were...

 He told her she had probably committed murder in her past lives. This is a woman, already on anti-depressants...she had started to believe she was hiding deep dark thoughts..

 He told her that her ancestors suffered tuberculosis, and she was now suffering something similar..

 He told her that her stomach was too alkaline and her intestines were too acidic...

 Then proceeded to give her 39 supplements to take. This was the first time she had ever been to a naturopath. I am lucky she persevered and wanted a 2nd opinion. I am happy to say she walked out a much relieved person, and felt as though she had finally seen a professional.

 I felt as though I ought to share these thoughts with you. As a naturopath, I feel very strongly that we all need to be regulated. This will raise the bar and weed out the charletons that we are constantly having to defend ourselves against. I recognise that we all operate a little differently, but even just a certain level of accredited education would go along way. If you are operating in the political arena, I am very happy to support you in this cause in any way I can.

 Kind Regards,

(Name withheld. This naturopath has a Bachelor of Health Science from a Uni. Original email held by me.)

Some weeks later:

Dear Hilbert,

 I'm pleased I was able to assist. I was going to write to you earlier, but thought against it, as this issue has seemed to collect momentum as it goes. After my letter to you, I received a phone call from Mr Woolcott, abusing me for not calling him personally and talking about the patient with him. He then went on to tell me about his relationship with you in the past, and what had transpired between you both and the German Company. (All of which, is none of my business, I know, and I would have been happy not to hear it!) Then he told me he was amazed that I hadn't heard of him as he had been practising for 33 years, was a respected lecturer, and that if he was really a charletan he would have moved on. (I told him I knew nothing about him - I had only moved over from Sydney last year).I apologised for not calling him first, but I told him I wouldn't apologise for anything else I had said.

I thought it would rest there. The next day, whilst I was seeing a patient, my therapist told me Mr Woolcott had come in to my clinic, and wanted to know who was my professional association. He then took all my therapists, and my business cards, made sure he told my therapist his name, then left.

Two days later I received an email from his Association, asking me to request that the patient make a formal complaint, and that I was to desist in saying anything about Mr Woolcott as it was slanderous, and I would be prosecuted. I haven't responded. When I looked up their website, they state that unfortunately anyone can still call themselves a naturopath (I believe this is not only in W.A but also across Australia). Mr Woolcott had applied earlier than 1986 (they call him a founding member) and so a grandfather clause probably applies to him. On his own website, he refers to himself as "Australia's leading naturopath".

As you can see, I feel his behaviour to be rather menacing, and I would simply like the matter to rest. I have never had an issue with a practitioner before, and found this incident to be distasteful. After discussions with other people in our industry, I have discovered that this seems to be his character. I ask that this letter remain confidential between you and I, and doesn't get circulated. I am not in a hurry to speak with this man again!

Kind Regards,

If you had any similar experience with this man contact us.

People don't want to get involved making it easy for crooks and conmen in this industry. The grandfather clause is the biggest joke. If you claim to be something you are not, you're allowed to continue if you have done it before 1986 already.  

2. Complementary Medicine Association

The Complementary Medicine Association Limited (http://www.cma.asn.au/) habours people calling themselves naturopaths without having appropriate qualifications. 

Members of this association have been afforded

1. Advertising exemptions from the TGA

2. GST exemptions on consultations from the ATO

3. Provider status from over 40 health funds across Australia

4. Provider status for work cover

5. Access to low cost professional indemnity insurance.

This association was cleverly set up by the late Robert Lucy as part of his company Prescribing Biochemists incorporating “The College of Somatic Studies” to give people like Mr. Woolcott the opportunity to gain some form of professional status without having such qualifications. This association was founded over 20 years ago and got away with it for so long. Unqualified persons claiming rebates from private health funds and tax exemptions for services they are not entitled to provide.

It is time authorities take a good look at this association and in particular how it was set up. The members obviously give each other some form of certificates and accreditations.

The Complementary Medicine Association was founded in NSW but is now registered in QLD and operates out of a PO Box. So authorities claim it’s outside their jurisdiction.

If you had any dealings and bad experience with this association we want to know about it.