Doctor borrowed $10K from patient

OTTAWA • An Ottawa doctor stepped over the line when he borrowed $10,000 from an elderly patient suspected of having dementia to pay his office rent, says the provincial body that regulates physicians.

The discipline committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has found that Dr. Peter Diarmuid Davison committed an act of professional misconduct and suspended him for three months as of May 2.

In the summer of 2016, Davison, a family doctor who was licensed to practice in 1975, found himself in “acute financial difficulties, both of a professional and personal nature,” according to a report from the discipline committee.

Davison was having problems paying his office rent. He turned to a close friend, who couldn’t help. He asked his landlord to come to a solution, but the landlord only partially agreed and Davison needed some money to get back into his office.

“Given his age and stage of his career, he was also deeply embarrassed by the circumstances,” said the report. “Aside from his wife and close friend, he did not share details of his financial difficulties with other family members, including his children, nor did he seek support from additional friends and family.”

Davison turned to a man in his 90s who had been a patient since the 1990s.

The committee’s report said a geriatric nurse had evaluated the man in 2015, and found “suspected dementia” and “probable mixed mild dementia.” Davison had also conducted an assessment of the patient in support of the man’s application for admission into a long-term care home, and concluded the patient needed to have his medication dispensed more frequently because the patient “forgets to take his medications” and was sometimes late for refills by up to a month.

Davison visited the patient in his condo, where the man lived alone, and asked for financial help. No one else was present.

The patient gave Davison a cheque for $10,000. Davison told the patient he would pay him back when he could and cashed the cheque on July 28, 2016.

In August, Davison again visited the patient’s condo and told him that he could not yet repay the money, but was expecting a cheque from OHIP in mid-august.

On Sept. 1, 2016, the college received a complaint from a close friend of the patient. Davison was verbally notified of the complaint on Sept. 12 and in writing on Sept. 19. On Sept. 20, he received the OHIP payment and gave the patient a $10,000 cheque, dated that day, along with a thank-you card. The cheque was cashed Sept 22.

A college investigator spoke to the patient in November 2016. When the investigator asked if the cheque had been deposited, the patient replied he considered the matter closed.