Authority rejects psychiatrist's bid to get job back

From New Zealand

A psychiatrist at Tauranga Hospital who was fired for serious misconduct over his management of a suicidal female patient has had his claim for unjustified dismissal rejected by the Employment Relations Authority.

The doctor, who has name suppression (Dr Y), cared for the woman between 1999 and 2001.

During this time, the woman sent the doctor 27 handwritten letters. When he last saw the woman, in September 2001, she declared she had "some feelings for" him.

In November 2001, her GP wrote asking Dr Y to see her again with a view to adjusting her medication.

By this time Dr Y now looked after patients who lived in a different geographical area from the woman and made arrangements for her to see a colleague in February 2002.

In early January 2002, the woman's new GP wrote to the hospital's mental health services asking that she been seen. The letter referred to her having stopped seeing Dr Y because "she had developed feelings of love for him".

The GP said he was also concerned that the woman felt suicidal. She killed herself on January 24, 2002.

The woman's sister complained to the hospital, alleging that Dr Y had continued to see the woman knowing she was developing strong feelings for him.

Dr Y's clinical director, Mark Fisher, looked into the matter and found that Dr Y either failed to recognise "ample signs" that the woman was forming an excessive emotional attachment towards him early in 2001, or that he failed to take appropriate action.

Dr Tom Flewett, a consultant psychiatrist with Capital Coast District Health Board, reviewed the matter and found that Dr Y's management of the woman's correspondence was "poor" and that he should have acted much sooner in transferring her to another psychiatrist.

Following Dr Flewett's draft report in June 2003, Dr Y was suspended.

In June 2004, board CEO Ron Dunham ruled that Dr Y's conduct did constitute serious misconduct and he was dismissed.

Authority member Robin Arthur found that Mr Dunham was entitled to fire Dr Y in the circumstances. He rejected Dr Y's claims for reinstatement, lost income, and compensation.