Two doctors at the centre of one of Australia’s worst medical scandals involving the deaths of 24 psychiatric patients have failed in a final bid to clear their names.

Former GP Dr John Gill and former psychiatrist John Herron both worked at Chelmsford Hospital in Sydney during the 1970s where they administered so-called ‘deep sleep therapy’ (DST).

Some 50 years on, they now face massive legal bills — possibly running into millions — after losing the three-year defamation battle against publisher HarperCollins and ABC journalist Steve Cannane.

The doctors had originally sued over Mr Cannane’s book, Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia, which included a chapter on the church’s role in exposing the treatments being administered at Chelmsford.