EXPERIENCED NURSE SACKED OVER ROMANCE WITH ALCOHOLIC PATIENT

A CAIRNS nurse with 30 years of experience has been sacked and deregistered for a year after he became romantically involved with an alcoholic patient he met at work.

Gordon Clive MacLeod Wood, 51, was working at Cairns Clinic during 2017 where he met the patient after she was admitted in February for making multiple suicide attempts linked to her alcohol use.

According to Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal documents obtained by the Cairns Post she was admitted a second time in May and it was during that month-long stay the relationship began.

Judge John Allen QC said in his findings that the pair began speaking on the phone and sending text messages outside Mr Wood’s work hours.

“The relationship included physical intimacy by way of hugging and kissing,” he said.

Their relationship continued after she was discharged in late June and a month later the pair had decided to get mar- ried. Soon afterwards she was admitted to the clinic again after a relapse and Mr Wood was involved in her patient care for five more days before staff at the clinic became aware of the pair’s relationship.

The documents said he was suspended on full pay while an investigation began.

Judge Allen said Mr Wood met with senior clinic staff on August 17.

“(He) made admissions that the professional boundaries between himself and (the patient) had been compromised,” he said in the findings.

“He stated that his relationship with (her) was mutual and admitted that what he had done was ‘very wrong’.”

In a statement written by the patient late last year she said the pair had broken up, but she had no ill feelings.

“Mr Wood and myself have tried to deal with the consequences of our actions to the best of our abilities,” she said.

“Speaking for myself, I do not regret my relationship with Mr Wood. He is a good man with a kind and sincere heart and I am very happy to be able to call him my dear friend.”