He repaid the loan, but regulator found he committed professional misconduct

Doctor suspended for borrowing $10K from elderly patient

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 practise 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 partly 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 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 that 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 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 that as far as he was concerned, the matter was closed.

On Oct. 31, Davison told the college he had been under considerable stress when he approached the patient. While he believed at the time that he and the patient were on equal footing and the patient was not a vulnerable person, he told the college he appreciated that he put the man in a difficult position and apologized to him.

Davison had no history of any discipline proceeding and co-operated with the investigation, according to the college, which regulates medicine, including issuing the certificates of registration that allow doctors to practise.

The discipline committee also ordered Davison to take instruction in medical ethics within six months at his own expense, to appear before the panel to be reprimanded and to pay the $5,500 to cover the cost of the disciplinary proceeding within 30 days.

Davison could not be reached for comment. A message on the answering machine at his office on McCarthy Road said only that the office would be closed in May, and advised patients in need of urgent care to visit a walk-in clinic or emergency room.