A WA GP has been reprimanded and had conditions placed on his registration over inappropriate messages sent to a female patient via Facebook and Instagram.
The State Administrative Tribunal in WA found that the doctor had engaged in professional misconduct at odds with the board’s code of conduct for good medical practice and guidelines on sexual boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship.
Between January 26 and February 13 last year, the GP made several attempts to communicate with a patient over social media platforms, with some messages including sexualised and inappropriate comments, often late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
In March last year, the patient lodged a voluntary notification with AHPRA, and in May the board’s sexual boundaries notifications committee imposed immediate conditions on the doctor’s registration.
It considered suspending his registration but decided that other restrictions, including banning contact with female patients and practising medicine only at approved locations, would mitigate further risk to the public.
It said the GP had shown remorse for his actions and admitted that his behaviour did not maintain professional boundaries and amounted to professional misconduct.
At his own initiative, the doctor had counselling with a psychologist, and completed relevant education about maintaining boundaries and professional ethics. He also stopped using social media.
Under the conditions on his registration, the doctor now has to be mentored by another registered health practitioner for six months, but conditions restricting him from seeing female patients have been removed.
The doctor paid $4500 to the board’s costs of the proceedings.
RACGP WA chair Dr Ramya Raman said the behaviour was “completely unacceptable” but was an isolated incident within the profession.
“It doesn’t matter where such communication is happening, if it’s a social media chat, phone call or otherwise,” she said.
“The guidelines about relationships with patients are very clear, and the majority of GPs are well-aware of them and do the right thing.
“The vast majority of GPs are aware of the guidelines about relationships with patients and understand why they are important. We understand the doctor-patient relationship is sacrosanct and always keep our patients’ health and wellbeing front of mind.”
Dr Raman said the RACGP’s social media guide to support GPs and practices made it clear that professional and safe conduct online was paramount. It stressed the importance of having a social media policy in place and ensuring GPs are other practice staff complied with it.