Banning doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 is a “violation” of the doctor-patient relationship, a Federal MP believes.

Liberal Party backbencher Craig Kelly, a well-known advocate for hydroxychloroquine, wants the decision on whether to use the antimalarial for coronavirus to be left in the hands of doctors.

In a statement to Parliament on Tuesday he said bureaucrats had no right to ban doctors from prescribing the malarial drug, even if the benefits were unproven.

He said the ban was in direct violation of the ethical principles set out in section 37 of the Declaration of Helsinki, which states doctors can use their judgement to use, with the patient’s consent,  an unproven intervention if it “offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering”.