GP wins court fight after former clinic accused her of poaching patients
A GP has won a court battle with her former workplace after she was accused of poaching patients when she set up her own clinic nearby.
For nearly four years, Dr Nicole Chater was a part-time independent contractor with Concept Cosmetic Medicine Holdings (CCM), which has clinics in Sydney and Southern NSW.
In late 2025, she quit to open her own cosmetic and general practice, Mind Body Skin Institute, in Bowral, about 750m from the CCM clinic where she had been working.
The clinic launched legal action in the Supreme Court of NSW seeking damages and compensation, along with court injunctions preventing her from treating its clients until December this year.
It claimed she had breached a clause in her contract that prevented her from treating CCM patients at any other location — or for 12 months if the contract was terminated.
CCM director Helen Hamilton alleged that Dr Chater had “diverted” at least 114 patients; this claim was based on the fact those patients no longer had future appointments with the clinic.
Of the 488 patients she had treated at CCM’s Bowral clinic, only 49 had returned or rescheduled, which Ms Hamilton described as “a level of dropout … far greater than I have ever experienced or witnessed in the past 24 years of operating CCM”.
However, Dr Chater successfully argued that her CCM contract only prohibited her from treating patients who had been referred to her by CCM.
She said she had introduced many new clients to the CCM clinic, including her pre-existing patients from an unrelated Sydney practice where she had worked part-time.
In addition, she attracted many new patients through her social contacts and advertising on her social media.
Regardless, she had only contacted a small number of patients who had booked to see her at CCM and for whom she had written a handover for the CCM doctor who would see them instead.
Just one business card was handed out, she said, to a patient who asked for her contact details. And she said she had told patients where she was going only if asked.
Dr Chater also told the court she did not offer patients inducements to follow her to her new practice. She stressed that many former CCM patients were seeing her for care that CCM did not provide.
“[She said] the Southern Highlands would lose access to one of the few specialist GPs practising in general practice, women’s health and metabolic health in the region and her own professional reputation within the community would be harmed.”
In finding for the GP, Justice Kate Williams rejected CCM’s argument that all patients were off limits since their contact information was held in their software system.
The court noted that Dr Chater had promoted her new clinic through her own Instagram account and a social media campaign conducted by a global marketing agency.
Content was placed in the feeds of people in Bowral, Mittagong and Moss Vale whose Instagram profiles indicated an interest in general practice, skin health, cosmetic medicine or wellness content more broadly.
This had achieved “substantial reach”, with 15,700 views on the first post, Justice Williams wrote.
The GP stressed that her marketing — also involving letterbox drops and advertising on a local publication — had not been directed towards particular people and had not involved patient contact details from CCM.
Justice Williams said CCM’s delay in bringing the proceedings also weighed against its application.
The company waited until 16 April 2026, almost four months after the GP left, to file its notice of motion despite most relevant events occurring in late December and early January.
CCM unsuccessfully argued that its application was delayed because it needed time to investigate before starting proceedings.
Read more: 95-year-old GP keeps his home after company’s illegal eviction attempt: Supreme Court
More information: NSW Supreme Court; 25 May 2026.
