Oakville psychiatrist’s affair with patient called sexual abuse

An Oakville psychiatrist’s affair with a married patient she introduced to her children amounts to sexual abuse, the province’s regulatory body for doctors has found.

In a ruling released this week, the disciplinary committee of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons also said Dr. Jane Catherine Gilbert engaged in professional misconduct.

An agreed statement of facts said Gilbert first started treating the patient, who was not named, in late 2009 after he sought out psychiatric care for depression at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital.

She continued to treat him until late 2010, and it is during that time that she initiated a sexual relationship, after first befriending him and his wife, the document said.

During a session that fall, Gilbert broke down in tears and told the patient that she believed her husband would leave her, the document said. The patient gave her a hug and invited her to have dinner with him and his wife at their home, it said.

She began to spend a lot of time at the couple’s home, often alone with the patient, according to the statement of facts. She propositioned him in the fall of 2010 and the two began a secret sexual relationship that continued until the spring of 2014.

“Patient A had not had sex with his wife in many years. His sexual encounter with Dr. Gilbert was very emotionally significant for him,” the document read.

“A few days after this sexual encounter, Patient A told Dr. Gilbert he loved her and would leave his wife for her. Dr. Gilbert responded that she loved him and wanted to be with him.”

The pair engaged in a variety of sexual acts “at her house, in her office at the hospital, at Patient A’s cottage, and at a hotel in Oakville,” the document said.

“Patient A would sleep at Dr. Gilbert’s house. Dr. Gilbert took Patient A to a sex store. He had never been to a sex store in the past.”

The doctor also continued to spend time at the patient’s home and introduced him to her two children, the statement said.

Pharmacy records from three different drug stores also show that between 2009 and 2014, Gilbert issued the patient more than 100 prescriptions for a variety of medications, including antidepressants, sedatives, narcotics, and medications for erectile dysfunction, the document said.

She also gave him non-prescription pills to treat his erectile dysfunction that she said came from a “third-world country.”

The disciplinary committee has ordered that Gilbert’s certificate of registration be revoked and that she reimburse the college for more than $16,000 it gave the patient in funding for therapy for those sexually abused by physicians.

The doctor has also been ordered to pay the college $6,000 for the costs of the proceedings.