Doctor suspended after sleeping with depressed patient GP concerned man ‘might harm himself’
AMIDLAND doctor has been suspended after having a one-night stand with a ‘potentially vulnerable’ patient after she gave him her mobile number during a consultation.
Dr Jean Paton-Ker, who was a GP at the Shipston Medical Centre in Warwickshire at the time, had been treating the patient for depression after the breakdown of his sevenyear relationship.
The mother-of-one gave the patient her phone number during a consultation in December 2013 and told him to contact her in an emergency over the Christmas period.
She told a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing that she was concerned he might harm himself.
But weeks later the patient texted the married GP and told her that he was attracted to her, but she replied that she was unable to meet up with him socially.
But in February 2014 the thenmarried GP met up with the patient at a pub and they later had sex.
The 40-year-old then referred herself to the General Medical Council (GMC) in August, after her husband discovered the affair and threatened to report her.
She will now be suspended for a month after a MPTS hearing.
Dr Paton-Ker told the panel she was devastated by her behaviour and begged the panel not to ban her from practising as she was a dedicated GP who loved her job.
She explained that she thought it may have happened as she identified with the heartbroken patient as her own marriage was collapsing, and that he was a one-off.
Chairman, Dr Vishal Agrawal said in the MPTS report : “Although it has not been alleged that Patient A was vulnerable in February 2014, the Tribunal considered that a patient who had suffered from depression and was being treated with antidepressants must be seen to be potentially vulnerable and this should have further impacted upon your judgment. “The Tribunal has previously stated that your misconduct, as a doctor, represented an extremely serious departure from acceptable standards of conduct and behaviour. “However, it is satisfied that your insight, remorse and the extensive remediation you have undertaken means that you are unlikely to repeat it. “The Tribunal concluded that a short period of suspension would allow it to mark the seriousness of your misconduct.”