GP who had flings with two patients walks into new job
Doctor wrote bizarre apology to wronged wife after spying on medical records
THE family GP suspended after conducting affairs with two of her patients will walk straight back into a new job early next year, to the fury of villagers where she worked.
Clare Nettleton was given a threemonth suspension last week, after admitting to a relationship with married patient Richard Atkinson and another ‘illicit affair’ with a close family friend.
She also improperly accessed the medical records of the other man, named only as Patient A, and Mr Atkinson’s wife, Lucy Large, and daughters, six and nine. The Mail on Sunday can also reveal Dr Nettleton wrote a handwritten letter to Lucy in a bizarre attempt to make amends for spying on Ms Large’s records, saying her behaviour was ‘wholly wrong’ and had made worse what was already ‘a difficult personal situation’.
Many in the idyllic Somerset village of Williton are already scandalised that her suspension was so short. Now they have expressed further disquiet at the news that she will take up a new position at a surgery just 20 miles away in February.
Dr Nettleton now lives with Mr Atkinson in a beautiful listed 17th Century cottage at the foot of a castle after her husband of 17 years, Chris Davis, threw her out of their home. The pair declined to comment.
Last night a friend of Lucy, said: ‘I, like Lucy, am furious at the injustice of all this. Clare will just take a little break, perhaps go on a nice holiday and then happily pick up where she left off. She won’t have to suffer any of the hardship I know Lucy is, living on a low income as a single mother who is battling on as best she can after suffering a calamity that was not of her making.
‘There was absolutely no recognition of or apology for the fact she had stolen the husband of a woman who everyone around here thinks the world of, or the devastation it had wrought on her and two little girls.’
When this newspaper approached Ms Large, for comment, she said: ‘What possible purpose would talking about this serve? It won’t change anything. It has destroyed so many lives and it can’t be put right again.’
Official papers seen by The Mail on Sunday show that Dr Nettleton accessed the medical records of Patient A as often as 19 times. She then had a fling with Atkinson, a carpenter and artist. The pair chatted online and would meet for coffee before taking the relationship further.
A friend of the family said Ms Large, much to her humiliation, was the last to know of her husband’s affair. She is now seeking divorce. The couple’s ten-year marriage had already been tested by Richard’s long term depression, the friend said, during which she had supported him.
In its ruling last week, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester cited the lack of GPs in rural areas as a factor in how to censure Dr Nettleton, saying a long suspension ‘would not be in the interests of the community you serve’.
A statement on the website of the Exmoor Medical Centre in Dulverston, where Mrs Nettleton will work from February, refers to ‘concerns’, but said it had received ‘positive comments about her care’ and that ‘we look forward to her joining us’.