A keynote speech by an Australian doctor currently in Gaza has been dropped from the emergency medicine college’s annual scientific meeting over its ‘political’ content.

Former Médecins Sans Frontières medical co-ordinator for Palestine Dr Natalie Thurtle had two in-person presentations scheduled for this week’s conference in Canberra but returned to Gaza when the conflict escalated.

Instead, she provided a prerecorded speech.

But the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) cancelled the speech based on the video, saying it contained “personal views and a political narrative beyond the scope of the conference”.